These Offsides

[Sneax]

I have bitched about it before in the game threads, but felt like posting it as its own thing.

Obviously as devils fans we are biased, and see most of the calls in our favor. But these offsides this series have been so ridiculous I literally can't believe some of them.

The one that really irked me is last game, a king was about 4-5 feet into our zone before the puck came in. It was one of the worst offsides I've seen allowed. This is the sequence that resulted in the icing -> volch hurt -> salvador in and high stick -> kings pp The whole thing would never have happened given the refs calling the blatant offsides.

Is anyone else seeing a tremendous amount of kings offside as well that the refs just don't call. Or am I seeing things.

Meanwhile, we seem to get called on offsides if we are a hair offsides.

[squishyx]

We've been on the lucky end of the off sides this playoffs, we've had at least 2 goals which were scored after technically being offsides so I don't know how much wiggle room we have to complain about the linesmen.

[BCdevil]

Not sure about the specific play you were referring to but there was one point in Game 5 where a Devil played the puck back into the defensive zone, negating what would otherwise have been offsides, and a ton of people (who apparently don't know the rules) were ranting and raving around me.

[Sneax]

No lol, this was on a kings 3 on 2 break, one of the kings was well into the zone before the puck was carried in.

[mouse]

I think we've basically broken even on bad calls. The home team seems to get more, which may be an issue tonight, but so far the refs haven't swung the series in either direction.

[socbrian]

The one that really irked me is last game, a king was about 4-5 feet into our zone before the puck came in. It was one of the worst offsides I've seen allowed. This is the sequence that resulted in the icing -> volch hurt -> salvador in and high stick -> kings pp The whole thing would never have happened given the refs calling the blatant offsides.

I saw that also, another big this is the refs keep on getting hit with the puck. Most I have ever seen in a series

[Chuck the Duck]

I thought the rule was, when there was a delayed offsides and the other team shot the puck in on goal, then the whistle would be blown and the faceoff would come out to center. What confused me last game was, after Brodeur charged out on Stoll to break up a potential breakwaway, then got knocked down by his own defenseman, the puck was shot back in by the Kings while Stoll was still offsides. Brodeur made a leaping catch like Curtis Granderson, but the whistle didn't blow and play continued. Did they change the rule? Or is it only blown dead if the puck goes in the net on an offsides (like what should have happened in the AHL game last week)?

Edited June 11, 2012 by Chuck the Duck

[Legion15]

That's one of those weird technicalities in the rules it seems. Most of the rules are pretty clear and obvious, then once in a while you get this obscure one, or one with a pretty odd outcome. Like until it happened, I didn't know if there was an empty net and a player comes in on a breakaway and is hauled down (normally resulting in penalty shot if the goalie hadn't been pulled) the goal is automatically awarded, and not calling the goalie off the bench to defend a penalty shot. I also didn't know until I looked it up why there's that "crease" in front of the penalty boxes. Apparently there, the players must keep outside of that line while the ref informs the official score table of the penalties, or risk penalties. Some pretty odd things in hockey that only come up once in a blue moon

[CaptainRafalski]

That's one of those weird technicalities in the rules it seems. Most of the rules are pretty clear and obvious, then once in a while you get this obscure one, or one with a pretty odd outcome. Like until it happened, I didn't know if there was an empty net and a player comes in on a breakaway and is hauled down (normally resulting in penalty shot if the goalie hadn't been pulled) the goal is automatically awarded, and not calling the goalie off the bench to defend a penalty shot. I also didn't know until I looked it up why there's that "crease" in front of the penalty boxes. Apparently there, the players must keep outside of that line while the ref informs the official score table of the penalties, or risk penalties. Some pretty odd things in hockey that only come up once in a blue moon

This is why it is important to delegate a Captain and alternates because they are allowed to discuss issues with the refs in that crease.

[David Puddy]

I thought the rule was, when there was a delayed offsides and the other team shot the puck in on goal, then the whistle would be blown and the faceoff would come out to center. What confused me last game was, after Brodeur charged out on Stoll to break up a potential breakwaway, then got knocked down by his own defenseman, the puck was shot back in by the Kings while Stoll was still offsides. Brodeur made a leaping catch like Curtis Granderson, but the whistle didn't blow and play continued. Did they change the rule? Or is it only blown dead if the puck goes in the net on an offsides (like what should have happened in the AHL game last week)?

That's not true anymore... but maybe it used to be. "If the puck is shot on goal during a delayed off-side, the play shall be allowed to continue under the normal clearing-the-zone rules. Should the puck, as a result of this shot, enter the defending team’s goal during a delayed off-side, either directly or off the goalkeeper, a player or an official on the ice, the goal shall be disallowed as the original shot was off-side."

[hystyk28]

That's not true anymore... but maybe it used to be. "If the puck is shot on goal during a delayed off-side, the play shall be allowed to continue under the normal clearing-the-zone rules. Should the puck, as a result of this shot, enter the defending team’s goal during a delayed off-side, either directly or off the goalkeeper, a player or an official on the ice, the goal shall be disallowed as the original shot was off-side."

I thought the old rule was still in effect because I was wondering the same this thing on that Brodeur play. Thanks for the update on that one.

[Chuck the Duck]

That's not true anymore... but maybe it used to be. "If the puck is shot on goal during a delayed off-side, the play shall be allowed to continue under the normal clearing-the-zone rules. Should the puck, as a result of this shot, enter the defending team’s goal during a delayed off-side, either directly or off the goalkeeper, a player or an official on the ice, the goal shall be disallowed as the original shot was off-side."

That explains it. Thanks for the heads up.

[ATLL765]

Things like complex rules, gray areas and inconsistent calls are the big difficulty with hockey, imo. I've gotten a couple friends to watch pretty much all the playoff games this year and they've gotten pretty into it, but have basically no knowledge of the rules outside of the obvious basics. Sometimes they'll ask me a question, and I have a pretty good understanding of most of the rules, including some of the obscure ones. The issue is, sometimes the rule just is not clear to me, or to anyone for that matter and because of that, even when I thoroughly explain a particular rule, it can leave them a bit lost. This isn't just an issue with new fans, like my friends, either. Many times, I'm at a loss for what a rule is or means. I'm often asked things like "Why can you punch people after the whistle or when they're on the ice?" and my answer is, "uhhhh, the rules are supposed to be enforced like they normally are, but they aren't, because....uhh, it's just like that" or "why is Lundqvist three times the size of Brodeur?", "why isn't it icing when they shoot it from just behind center ice", all these questions are ones I don't have good answers for. Icing just isn't called when it's close to the center red line, which is very unlike offsides which is called as closely as possible. It's silly that rules like roughing, elbowing, cross checking and many others are enforced differently before and after the whistle, as well as when players are already down on the ice, where it seemingly is ok to lay on top of an opposing player for minutes at a time, punching them in the back of the head the whole time.

Sorry for the rant, but it's things like that can really bother me about the NHL. All anyone can really ask for is consistency and the NHL seems to really not care for that.

[devilsfan26]

This is why it is important to delegate a Captain and alternates because they are allowed to discuss issues with the refs in that crease.

Actually nobody is allowed inside the referees' crease. Tehcnically only the captains and alternates (or whoever is designated if none of the captains are on the ice at the time) can speak to the officials. That is why when the refs are talking to the scorekeeper you see the two captains waiting outside the referees' crease to talk to them and everyone else is by the bench or elsewhere on the ice.