DK: Cooper's a fool for arguing correctly enforced rule
It'd appeared that the Lightning scored a tying goal by Nikita Kucherov in the final minute, only for the NHL to initiate a review and eventually negate the goal because of a fully confirmed hand pass:
SCRIPPS SPORTS
The league automatically reviews any scenario that would be subject to a coach's challenge in the final minute of play and in overtime.
The NHL puts out a press releases to explain challenge decisions and, of this one, it said "The Situation Room determined that Brandon Hagel directed the puck to Jake Guentzel with a hand pass with 1:08 left in the third period – 13 seconds prior to Nikita Kucherov’s goal. The decision was made in accordance with Rule 79."
Rule 79, verbatim: "A player shall be permitted to stop or 'bat' a puck in the air with his open hand, or push it along the ice with his hand, and the play shall not be stopped unless, in the opinion of the on-ice officials, he has directed the puck to a teammate, or has allowed his team to gain an advantage, and subsequently possession and control of the puck is obtained by a player of the offending team, either directly or deflected off any player or official."
Pretty clear-cut stuff, right?
Not according to Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper, who'd go on an extended -- albeit very much characteristic -- complaint spree in the press conference afterward:
"Well, there's a couple things," he'd begin. "Did he mean to do it, or was it deflected? Was there an advantage gained or not? And you could really debate whether an advantage was gained. Did Brandon Hagel direct that puck knowing exactly where it was going? No. Would you sit here today and say Brandon Hagel was maybe protecting his face from a puck hitting it, or protecting some part of his body?"
With that, Cooper referred to Erik Karlsson's attempted clear that came up Hagel's way.
Then it got super-strange.
"If I threw this microphone at you right now," Cooper would say to Jay Reacher, a local podcast host who'd brought up the subject, "would you put your hand up to stop it? Hell yeah, you would, all right? So there's a spirit of the rule. Was that the spirit of the rule for him, take it in the face? If that's OK, let me do that."
Cooper summoned the maturity to keep from throwing his microphone at Reacher, then proceeded, "And he didn't direct any pucks. That was a bang-bang play. There were tons of guys around. It turned out we got it first. A lot of the game developed after that, and the puck went in the net. So, is that a really frustrating one for me? It is. I think you read the rule book, which we did, and then you try and dissect what happened in the play, and then you take it all into consideration. It's laughable that that got overturned, but in the end, it did, so can't cry over that."
You can't?
"Bottom line is, we should never been put it in that situation, anyway. So that's our bad that we got to that situation. But I think in the spirit of the rule, come on, that's a goal all day."
The spirit who what?
He kept going: "Things happen on the ice. The game is fast. Refs get most of it right. None of them thought it was a hand pass. There's four of them. So it's the evils of video replay. Now there's eyes on everything and camera angles, and now it's judgment calls, and then the judgment of everybody playing the game, that was not a hand pass. Somebody that's not even in Florida is making that call. That can be a little bit frustrating."
This is all so stupid I don't even know where to start. But I'll give it a few shots:
• Evgeni Malkin's winner less than two minutes earlier, one made possible by Tampa Bay conceding a three-on-one after battling all the way back from three down to tie. Which could've been -- and undoubtedly should've been -- the full focus of his postgame wrath.
• If Cooper wants to have a real dialogue about "the spirit" of hockey, and what's right and wrong, I'd happily pull up a chair and discuss the Lightning's two flagrant dives early in the third period that put them back in the game, one by Jake Guentzel, the other by J.J. Moser, both of them embarrassing enough that those players can -- or should -- expect to be fined by the NHL for embellishment.
• The hand-pass rule's been in effect in the NHL for more than a century, its only significant modification coming 40 years ago when the Islanders were systematically abusing them in the defensive zone. There's nothing wrong with it.
• My guess, without Googling, is that Cooper's raised this concern exactly zero times in his first 13 seasons as the Lightning's head coach ... until tonight.
• The call, as Cooper complained, wasn't made by someone in Florida. He's right about that. It was initiated out of the NHL's replay room in Toronto. Which also is the way it works. To be precise: In the final minute of the third period or at any point in overtime, the league will initiate the review of any scenario that'd otherwise be subject to a coach’s challenge. But here's what Cooper didn't know as he was speaking: Down the hall, I'd confirm with Dan Muse that the Penguins' own replay people were already all over this, that they had their own video evidence to confirm the hand pass and that, had the league whiffed, he'd have challenged it himself. And won.
• Muse had this to say: "Yeah, we were aware. Some of those ones are a little bit tougher to tell, but our guys do a great job there just kind of checking everything. They gotta check the goal, they gotta check the entry, and then anything else there that possibly could've been missed. And so, we had that right. That's a league-initiated review based on the time. We felt based on what we saw, we thought the call was going to go our way. Seen it kind of go both ways. You go through and you try to look at the calls in the past, too, just to have an idea."
• Muse was definitely in Florida.
Now, is this a crappy way to win/lose an NHL game?
Whatever. I guess it can be both. Same as when one of those offside reviews negates a goal that's scored, like, a minute and a half after the zone entry. Feels wrong.
But broaching this in such a weird, whiny tone minutes after losing because of a hand pass ... yeah, no, man. Save it for some summer meeting.
THE ASYLUM
DK: Cooper's a fool for arguing correctly enforced rule
It'd appeared that the Lightning scored a tying goal by Nikita Kucherov in the final minute, only for the NHL to initiate a review and eventually negate the goal because of a fully confirmed hand pass:
SCRIPPS SPORTS
The league automatically reviews any scenario that would be subject to a coach's challenge in the final minute of play and in overtime.
The NHL puts out a press releases to explain challenge decisions and, of this one, it said "The Situation Room determined that Brandon Hagel directed the puck to Jake Guentzel with a hand pass with 1:08 left in the third period – 13 seconds prior to Nikita Kucherov’s goal. The decision was made in accordance with Rule 79."
Rule 79, verbatim: "A player shall be permitted to stop or 'bat' a puck in the air with his open hand, or push it along the ice with his hand, and the play shall not be stopped unless, in the opinion of the on-ice officials, he has directed the puck to a teammate, or has allowed his team to gain an advantage, and subsequently possession and control of the puck is obtained by a player of the offending team, either directly or deflected off any player or official."
Pretty clear-cut stuff, right?
Not according to Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper, who'd go on an extended -- albeit very much characteristic -- complaint spree in the press conference afterward:
"Well, there's a couple things," he'd begin. "Did he mean to do it, or was it deflected? Was there an advantage gained or not? And you could really debate whether an advantage was gained. Did Brandon Hagel direct that puck knowing exactly where it was going? No. Would you sit here today and say Brandon Hagel was maybe protecting his face from a puck hitting it, or protecting some part of his body?"
With that, Cooper referred to Erik Karlsson's attempted clear that came up Hagel's way.
Then it got super-strange.
"If I threw this microphone at you right now," Cooper would say to Jay Reacher, a local podcast host who'd brought up the subject, "would you put your hand up to stop it? Hell yeah, you would, all right? So there's a spirit of the rule. Was that the spirit of the rule for him, take it in the face? If that's OK, let me do that."
Cooper summoned the maturity to keep from throwing his microphone at Reacher, then proceeded, "And he didn't direct any pucks. That was a bang-bang play. There were tons of guys around. It turned out we got it first. A lot of the game developed after that, and the puck went in the net. So, is that a really frustrating one for me? It is. I think you read the rule book, which we did, and then you try and dissect what happened in the play, and then you take it all into consideration. It's laughable that that got overturned, but in the end, it did, so can't cry over that."
You can't?
"Bottom line is, we should never been put it in that situation, anyway. So that's our bad that we got to that situation. But I think in the spirit of the rule, come on, that's a goal all day."
The spirit who what?
He kept going: "Things happen on the ice. The game is fast. Refs get most of it right. None of them thought it was a hand pass. There's four of them. So it's the evils of video replay. Now there's eyes on everything and camera angles, and now it's judgment calls, and then the judgment of everybody playing the game, that was not a hand pass. Somebody that's not even in Florida is making that call. That can be a little bit frustrating."
This is all so stupid I don't even know where to start. But I'll give it a few shots:
• Evgeni Malkin's winner less than two minutes earlier, one made possible by Tampa Bay conceding a three-on-one after battling all the way back from three down to tie. Which could've been -- and undoubtedly should've been -- the full focus of his postgame wrath.
• If Cooper wants to have a real dialogue about "the spirit" of hockey, and what's right and wrong, I'd happily pull up a chair and discuss the Lightning's two flagrant dives early in the third period that put them back in the game, one by Jake Guentzel, the other by J.J. Moser, both of them embarrassing enough that those players can -- or should -- expect to be fined by the NHL for embellishment.
• The hand-pass rule's been in effect in the NHL for more than a century, its only significant modification coming 40 years ago when the Islanders were systematically abusing them in the defensive zone. There's nothing wrong with it.
• My guess, without Googling, is that Cooper's raised this concern exactly zero times in his first 13 seasons as the Lightning's head coach ... until tonight.
• The call, as Cooper complained, wasn't made by someone in Florida. He's right about that. It was initiated out of the NHL's replay room in Toronto. Which also is the way it works. To be precise: In the final minute of the third period or at any point in overtime, the league will initiate the review of any scenario that'd otherwise be subject to a coach’s challenge. But here's what Cooper didn't know as he was speaking: Down the hall, I'd confirm with Dan Muse that the Penguins' own replay people were already all over this, that they had their own video evidence to confirm the hand pass and that, had the league whiffed, he'd have challenged it himself. And won.
• Muse had this to say: "Yeah, we were aware. Some of those ones are a little bit tougher to tell, but our guys do a great job there just kind of checking everything. They gotta check the goal, they gotta check the entry, and then anything else there that possibly could've been missed. And so, we had that right. That's a league-initiated review based on the time. We felt based on what we saw, we thought the call was going to go our way. Seen it kind of go both ways. You go through and you try to look at the calls in the past, too, just to have an idea."
• Muse was definitely in Florida.
Now, is this a crappy way to win/lose an NHL game?
Whatever. I guess it can be both. Same as when one of those offside reviews negates a goal that's scored, like, a minute and a half after the zone entry. Feels wrong.
But broaching this in such a weird, whiny tone minutes after losing because of a hand pass ... yeah, no, man. Save it for some summer meeting.
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