The NHL has defended the controversial goal it awarded to Nashville’s Matthew Wood against Montreal, leaning on Rule 63.7 after video review upheld the original call in the second period.
The sequence started when Josh Anderson dislodged the net before the puck crossed the goal line. After review, officials ruled the puck would have gone in anyway and gave Wood the goal.
That decision is drawing plenty of scrutiny, and the league’s own explanation shows why. Rule 63.7 allows a goal to be awarded when a defending player displaces the net, the attacker has an imminent scoring chance, and officials determine the puck would have entered between the posts had the net stayed in place.
“In the event that the goal post is displaced, either deliberately or accidentally, by a defending player, prior to the puck crossing the goal line between the normal position of the goalposts, the Referee may award a goal. In order to award a goal in this situation, the goal post must have been displaced by the actions of a defending player, the attacking player must have an imminent scoring opportunity prior to the goal post being displaced, and it must be determined that the puck would have entered the net between the normal position of the goal posts.”
Wood, 21, came into the game without a goal in three appearances and had one assist. Instead of his first goal of the season coming on a clean finish, it arrived on a play that turned into a rules debate.
The league said all three conditions were met. Still, the judgment call on whether the chance was truly “imminent” and the speculation involved in deciding where the puck would have gone make it a difficult ruling to swallow.
For Anderson, 32, it was a rough break.
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