After Coach’s Challenge, Tim Peel Rules Goalie Interference On Dmitry Orlov Goal, Sets Bad Precedent

October 13, 2015 9:09 pm

Halfway through Tuesday’s game, the Caps were deep in a two-goal hole plus one and they looked pitiful. To the rescue came Dmitry Orlov, aided by Jay Beagle, who screened San Jose Sharks netminder Martin Jones.

That should have been Orlov’s first goal since the spring of 2014, but San Jose coach Pete DeBoer is a cranky-ass party pooper. Issuing the first coach’s challenge we’ve seen so far, DeBoer forced referee Tim Peel and company to review the play, which they did by looking at what looked like a Wii U remote.

Surely, we thought, they’d allow the goal. Beagle didn’t interfere with Jones, and plus Orlov really needed this.

But no, man, it’s Tim Peel. Of course they called it back.

“After video review, it has been determined that the Washington player came through, made contact with the goalie,” Peel said. “He was unable to properly do his job. No goal.”

Jay Beagle stared at the jumbotron in disbelief.

Fans booed.

“I don’t buy that call one bit,” Craig Laughlin said loudly after hearing Peel’s announcement. “I didn’t see any contact.”

During intermission, Alan May and former Caps goaltender Brent Johnson chimed in.

“I’m not buying it,” Alan May said, echoing Laughlin. “I disagree with the league and the referee who made that goal tonight. If that’s all it takes now to call goaltender interference, players are going to have to be a foot out [from the crease].”

“No reason that goal should have been disallowed,” Brent Johnson said. “He’s not in his sight-lines. He didn’t brush by his cage. For this to be disallowed, he would have to been coming up on [the goalie’s] back, getting a piece of him, and turning him.”

“The league blew it on that one,” May concluded.

This call encourages goaltenders to embellish. If you’re screened and can’t see the shot, you’ve got reason now to manufacture contact to get that goal called back.