In what seems to be almost a nightly occurrence, there was another goaltender interference call on Saturday night that left almost everyone that watched it completely confused.
With the Pittsburgh Penguins trailing the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-0 in the second period, defenseman Brian Dumoulin appeared to get the Penguins on the board after making a power move to the front of the net and beating Frederik Andersen for what appeared to be a rather pretty goal.
The only problem for Dumoulin and the Penguins is that not only was the goal immediately disallowed on a goalie interference call, Dumoulin was actually given a two-minute minor penalty for goalie interference.
You can see the play in the video above.
Dumoulin does make contact with Andersen as he drives to the net, but a lot of it seems to be the result of him being pushed from behind by Maple Leafs defenseman Ron Hainsey.
Because there was a penalty called on the play the Penguins were not able to challenge the play.
Toronto went on to immediately score on the ensuing power play to take what could have been a 3-1 game and turn it into a 4-0 game. That two-goal swing would prove to be a big deal later in the game when the Penguins scored a pair of late third period goals to cut the deficit to 4-2 before giving up an empty net goal.
Based on the reactions there was plenty of disagreement with the call.
This no goal call against @penguins is the biggest joke I’ve seen in awhile. Refs interpretation of goalie interference this year is absolutely brutal! Fix it already, WAKE UP! #Brutal
— Jeremy Roenick (@Jeremy_Roenick) March 11, 2018
This is absolutely absurd! The NHL is treating goalies like priceless china. Pretty soon you won’t be allowed to enter the crease. Better get it fixed before playoffs. I think it’s wrecking the game. #GoalieUnion https://t.co/2OMdqHKvVK
— Byron Dafoe (@ByronDafoe34) March 11, 2018
After the game Penguins coach Mike Sullivan echoed what a lot of other people around the NHL have said throughout this entire goalie interference ordeal by making the nobody knows what it is argument.
“It’s obviously a huge issue in the league,” said Sullivan. “It’s been discussed all year long. It seems every week there is something that this issue gets raised. It’s a challenge that the league has to try to iron out. I know it is being discussed, and everybody is going to try to do their best to clarify the language, clarify the criteria, whatever it may be because right now I don’t think anyone really knows what is goalie interference and what isn’t.”
Earlier this week the Toronto Maple Leafs were on the other end of a controversial goaltending interference ruling that resulted in coach Mike Babcock sounding off on the rule and demanding that the issue get fixed before the playoffs.
That came after Edmonton Oilers goalie Cam Talbot went on a profanity laced tirade over the situation following a loss one month ago.
Saturday’s incident came on the same day that Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston reported that Colin Campbell, the man in charge of the NHL’s hockey operations department, is going to deliver the message to teams that the type of criticism the rule is facing is not okay.
As long as there seems to be this much confusion it does not seem that the criticism is going to go away.
Especially if it starts to impact playoff games.
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Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.