Edmonton Oilers fans were up in arms Wednesday night as they watched the Anaheim Ducks come back from a two-goal deficit with a little help from the hockey gods (or, as many Edmontonians might suggest, a little help from officials).
The biggest source of debate was goal No. 1, scored by Ryan Getzlaf early in the second period (Watch the play at the top of this post). Oilers head coach Todd McLellan challenged the goal call, citing goalie interference by Ducks forward Corey Perry on Oilers netminder Cam Talbot, but a review deemed it a good goal.
There wasn’t much to be done about the goal that followed four minutes later, as a potential offside challenge was not possible since the Oilers had lost their challenge.
Colin Campbell, the NHL’s senior executive VP of hockey operations, joined Prime Time Sports on Thursday to further clarify any remaining confusion about Perry’s contact with Talbot. Here’s what he said:
“We look at every factor. Did Corey Perry hit the blocker? Did Corey Perry go into the blue? Was the goalie in the white? Was it a player we see doing this often? Corey Perry … we know that he likes to get there a lot and cause interference with the goaltenders—that’s one of his strengths, I guess you’d call it. We looked at everything and we expressed this to the referees. They made the call, and we were OK with the call.”
“The actual ruling that we discussed with the referees was: Did Corey Perry, did the offensive player for Anaheim, not allow the goaltender, Talbot for Edmonton, to do his job in the net? And we felt that he was able to do his job and that Corey Perry did not affect the puck going in the net on that play,” Campbell said.
Ultimately, it came down to incidental contact, and zeroing in on exactly where the contact occurred, which in this case was not in Talbot’s crease.
“In the white is incidental. We’ve got to protect the goalie doing his job in his blue crease, but if he enters into the white, any part—his glove, blocker, his pad, whatever,” Campbell continued. “Again, Corey Perry is pretty cute at doing those things, but in this case we gave him the benefit of the doubt.”
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