Blackhawks playing minor role in sudden scrutiny on NHL hand passes

ST. LOUIS — Behind the Rangers’ net Wednesday, Blackhawks forward Colton Dach pulled the puck off the wall with his stick, stopped it with his glove and then attempted to knock it in front of the net.

Unfortunately for him, Dach’s stick whiffed over top of the puck. Instead, teammate Ilya Mikheyev grabbed it and centered it to Ryan Donato, who scored. Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin immediately notified referees he believed it to be a hand pass, and following a successful Rangers challenge, the goal was taken off the board.

That marked the fourth hand-pass challenge around the NHL in a week’s span, which has created plenty of controversy and conversation. There’s more scrutiny on the rule now than ever before.

The NHL’s longstanding hand-pass rule generally prevents the puck from touching a given player’s glove and then being played by a teammate without the given player touching the puck with his stick in between. But it only applies if the given player either intentionally “directed the puck to a teammate” or unintentionally “allowed his team to gain an advantage.”

In none of these four cases was it an intentional pass, which means the definition of “gain an advantage” is the critical component. That definition seems like it might be expanding in scope, which could lead to more challenges in the future — leading to more lengthy stoppages and overturned goals, two things most fans despise.

The Hawks’ role in the controversy is relatively minor. Their purported hand pass in question, while not crystal clear, was definitely the clearest of the four.

Coach Jeff Blashill said Wednesday the ruling was “probably pretty easy, based on the way the rule is.” On Friday, he said his gut reaction is that the recent rash of hand-pass challenges are “just circumstance” and not worth analyzing.

Other coaches haven’t been as understated and civil, though. Lightning coach Jon Cooper, coincidentally Blashill’s mentor, called it “laughable” last week when his team’s late equalizing goal against the Penguins was overturned. In that case, the only puck-to-hand contact occurred when ex-Hawks forward Brandon Hagel was seemingly just trying to protect his face.

“It’s the evils of video replay,” Cooper told reporters.

Two days later, Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason lost a challenge when the puck dropped onto Panthers star Brad Marchand’s glove next to his helmet and the Panthers scored shortly thereafter. The league’s situation room determined no advantage was gained in that case, which Evason called “an absolute joke.”

Three days after that, the Sabres had a goal taken off the board in Edmonton after the puck deflected off Alex Tuch’s glove — while he held his stick — and over to teammate Tage Thompson, who scored. That incident set off Sabres coach Lindy Ruff.

“I don’t know how they come up with ‘hand pass,'” Ruff told reporters. “It boggles me. Somebody had to explain it to me. How that one is, and the one in Florida I watched isn’t — [there’s] no explanation.”

Goaltender interference and offside-related challenges will likely always exceed and overshadow hand pass-related challenges, simply because contact with goalies and close plays at the blue line both happen much more frequently.

But this nonetheless represents another slippery slope the NHL might want to jump ahead of.

Commissioner Gary Bettman said last week that the hand-pass rule could be reviewed, “if necessary,” at its annual meeting of general managers in March, according to Sportsnet. A more black-and-white definition of gaining an advantage — or perhaps even eliminating that gray area and outright requiring intent — might be prudent.

Dach chuckled when asked Friday if he would personally like to see the rule changed to require intent.

“I would say, ‘Yeah,’ because we didn’t get a goal off of it,” Dach said. “But if the shoe was on the other foot, I would probably say a different answer.”