The boundaries of what is and what
is not a legal move in an NHL shootout keeps getting pushed further and
further. The latest controversy about
what is and is not a legal attempt came Thursday night when Flyers forward
Danny Briere drove hard in at Devils goaltender Johan Hedberg before slamming on
the brakes. Hedberg dove out at Briere
attempting a pokecheck and Briere walked around him for the easy finish. The only problem was that Briere appeared to
violate Rule 24.2.
Rule 24.2 in part:
"The puck must be kept in motion towards the opponent's goal line
and once it is shot, the play shall be considered complete.”
Here
is the video via The Score:
When Briere slammed the brakes he
clearly used his backhand to stop the puck from rolling forward towards the
net, which should have deemed the attempt illegal. According to Tom Guilitti at Fire
and Ice Briere knew he was close to if not violating the rule
“He kind of surprised me with the poke check
and I almost fell,” Briere said. “I wanted to keep moving forward but he kind
of surprised me and I stumbled and almost stopped completely. I know the rule.
You’re not allowed to go backwards and you’re not allowed to stop completely.
To be honest, I wasn’t trying to stop completely. I just got surprised and
stumbled a little bit.”
In
the end the goal was allowed to stand because the NHL focused on the fact the
puck stayed in continuous motion and never came to a complete stop. So the question now becomes is the focus of
the rule on forward motion to the net or continuous motion because it would
change what sorts of attempts we could see in the future.
