Tim Peel: ‘Goalie Interference Has An Element of Gray Area’

Officiating always seems to be in the spotlight, but once the Stanley Cup Playoffs begin, it is magnified, especially regarding goalie interference. Goalie interference is the NHL’s version of the NFL catch-no-catch rule. However, as retired National Hockey League official Tim Peel told Full Press Hockey on the latest Full Press NHL Podcast, reviewing is not as easy as we think.

Goalie interference is a hot topic because of what we saw in Game 5 of the first-round series between the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning. Florida eliminated the Lightning in Game 5 by a score of 6-1, but two goals were not allowed because of goalie interference, leaving Jon Cooper perplexed.

“In this league, where goals are at a premium, all we’ve done is make the rules for more goal scoring. That’s what we’ve done; every year there seems to be something we tweak so more goals can be scored, Jon Cooper said following Game 5. “And that’s great, but there’s mandates, and the words were, to pull a goal off the board it has to be unbelievably egregious. That’s the standard to pull a goal off the board.”

The Lightning did not score the first goal or tie the game at 2-2 heading into the second intermission; Jon Cooper felt those were turning points of the game.

“So that was clearly a turning point in the game. If anybody’s going to talk about this game, they’re going to talk about the goals that were taken away,” said Cooper following Game 5. 

However, according to Tim Peel, a retired NHL official on the Full Press NHL Podcast, those were the correct calls as he described what officials look for when reviewing goalie interference.

“We’re looking at did the the forward or offending player, attacking player did he go into the goal crease by himself. The goalie has to be able to properly play his position. So did that player go into the goal crease and impede that goalie’s ability to play the position. We had one the couple days ago where Florida’s goal stood because Matthew Tkachuk got pushed into the goaltender. Those goals are allowed. There’s lots of times when an attacking player is there on the crease and he gets pushed in by the defenseman. Those goals are allowed. So our antennas go up when an attacking player goes into the crease and is not impeded and makes contact or prevents the goalie from from properly playing his position.” – Tim Peel on the Full Press NHL Podcast

According to the NHL situation room, those goals should not have counted. The NHL said that Tampa Bay’s Anthony Cirelli made incidental contact with Florida goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, which impaired his ability to play his position before the goal.

The decision was made in accordance with Rule 69.1, which states in part, “Goals should be disallowed only if: (1) an attacking player, either by his positioning or by contact, impairs the goalkeeper’s ability to move freely within his crease or defend his goal.”

In the first period, the NHL Situation Room applied the same rule to the Tampa Bay Lightning goal. The NHL stated that Anthony Duclair impaired Bobrovsky’s ability to play his position in the crease before Cirelli scored.

The decision was made in accordance with Rule 69.1, which states, in part, “Goals should be disallowed only if: (1) an attacking player, either by his positioning or by contact, impairs the goalkeeper’s ability to move freely within his crease or defend his goal.”

This is the same standard Tim Peel discussed. You can judge both of these goals, whether it was goalie interference or not. However, according to the letter of the law, the NHL got these two calls right.