A Matter of Semantics Ruins A Perfectly Good Comeback For Lightning

By Mike Smith | Thunderstruck Sports

Nikita Kucherov readies a slap shot against the Pittsburgh Penguins that momentarily tied the game with 55 seconds to play Thursday night at Benchmark International Arena. Photo Credit: Alyssa Shimko | Thunderstruck Sports

For Tampa Bay Lightning fans, Thursday night's loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins left a truly sour taste in the palette. Scores of social media posts from pundits and fans alike flew across the internet into the wee hours of the morning. Talk around the water cooler in Tampa on Friday morning most assuredly revolved around the controversial finish of a very exciting hockey game that went awry.

What could bring the Lightning fans to the point of heading north to burn down the entire city of Toronto to ensure that the NHL Situation Room would be caught up in the blaze?

A seemingly miraculous come-from-behind charge by the Bolts was nullified when a Nikita Kucherov game-tying goal was disallowed with less than a minute in regulation. Did the shot completely cross the goal line? Yes. Was there any offense in the crease by the Lightning that would cause Pittsburgh goalie Tristan Jarry to be unable to make the save? No. Were the Lightning offside? No.

It was...a hand pass.

A hand pass as ruled by the NHL Situation Room. A hand pass that occurred 13 seconds prior to the goal, when Brandon Hagel had a puck deflect off his glove that was headed towards his chest and face along the boards.

Referee Wes McCauley didn't call it. Referee Corey Syvret didn't, either. Neither did linemen Brandon Gawryletz and Devin Berg.

Toronto did.

As McCauley was getting ready to drop the puck for the ensuing faceoff in a 3-3 tie game, both he and Syvret were summoned to the headsets. The fans present were puzzled by the situation. Hagel, standing by the Lightning bench, was equally confused. After what felt like an endless moment of uncertainty, McCauley came back to center ice for the announcement.

No goal.

When the crowd at the Benchmark International Arena noticed that their Lightning were trailing by one again, boos filled the air. After a clock reset to 1:07, the Bolts furiously worked the puck down the ice for one last gasp attempt to salvage at least a point. Alas, it was all for naught as Tampa Bay came up short and lost, 4-3.

Immediately after, the fallout began.

Elation Turns to Frustration

There is no debate about whether the puck hit Hagel in the glove; it clearly did. The puck undeniably struck the palm of the glove. What remains open to interpretation is what happened as the puck hit the glove and afterwards.

Did Hagel try to pass the puck to his teammate, Jake Guentzel? Could Hagel have played the puck himself (canceling the infraction), or could Pittsburgh's Kevin Hayes have done so if McCauley hadn't been awkwardly positioned on the ice, blocking both of them? Was Hagel merely protecting himself from a stray puck moving quickly along the mid-board glass?

Here is Rule 79:

Rule 79 from the Official NHL Rule Book

"Did he mean to do it, or was it deflected?" Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper said. "Was there an advantage gained or not? You could really debate whether an advantage was gained. Did Brandon Hagel direct that puck, knowing exactly where it was going? No. Would you sit here today and say Brandon Hagel was maybe protecting his face from a puck hitting it, or protecting some part of his body?"

The ever-eloquent former lawyer continued his argument:

"If I threw this microphone at you right now, would you put up your hand to stop it?" Cooper questioned the media after the game. "Hell yeah, you would! So there's a spirit to the rule. Was that the spirit of the rule for him to take it in the face? I think that's where we get that wrong, and that's not what happened. And he didn't direct any pucks."

Toronto thought otherwise.

The official explanation from the NHL Situation Room.

That's it! That's the statement they released. Interesting that the NHL Situation Room used the term "in accordance" with regard to Rule 79.

Based on the rule, there is nothing to suggest an infraction occurred. There was no deliberate intention made on Hagel's part. Yet, according to the NHL Situation Room, Hagel committed the infraction.

And the debate continues, and will continue for days to come.

"That was a bang, bang play. There were tons of guys around. It turned out we got it first," Cooper said. "A lot of play, a lot of game developed after that, and the puck went in the net. So is that a really frustrating one for me? It is."

"I think if you read the rule book, which we did, and you try to dissect what happened in the play, and then you take it all into consideration. It's laughable that it got overturned. I think in the spirit of the rule, come on, that's a goal all day."

However, at the end of the day, it came down to semantics. While Cooper interjected the "Spirit of the Rule," the NHL Situation Room imposed the "Law of the Rule."

If you're arguing this case in court, the law of the rule superseded the spirit of the rule, and the Bolts were on the losing end of the verdict.

Lightning Put Themselves in a Bad Spot

Were the Lightning blameless in how things played out Thursday night?

At the end of the night, a loss is a loss. While this loss will sting the fans for a while, the Lightning must refocus quickly to avoid losing a third game in a row Saturday when they face the New York Islanders. New York defeated the Lightning Tuesday night in Long Island.

One can argue that if the Lightning had played a better game (especially in the second period), they could have avoided the entire controversy with time running out on Thursday. A key turnover by Hagel in the second period led to a Pittsburgh goal and his benching shortly thereafter. Hagel would return to the game later and redeem himself with two goals to start the rally.

Long cross-ice passing has been an Achilles heel for the Bolts this season, and Thursday night was no exception. Tampa Bay gave away the puck twenty times against the Penguins, and inevitably, that will cost you. Better puck control would certainly keep the team from getting into late-game situations as they did.

To their credit, even in the face of adversity, the Lightning kept fighting and clawing their way back into the game. Unfortunately, when you make key mistakes on the ice, it can lead to putting the game into the hands of your opponent.

Or in the hands of Toronto.