Quote:
Originally Posted by Enoch Root
IMO, Karlsson clearly propelled the puck with his skate into the net.
I was actually just watching it again a couple minutes ago. He lifts his skate, moves it forward, directs the puck into the net, and then (this is the damning part), puts his blade back down, on the outside edge, and outside his body weight. Anyway who plays knows that if you do that, you will fall down (as he did) because your skate is no longer under your weight. The only reason he would do that intentionally, is to kick the puck into the net.
It was actually pretty conclusive and more blatant than many goals that I have seen waived off.
Problem is, that for one person, it's a kick, and for another person (or on a different night), it's a redirection. In other words, it's subjective interpretation.
Only way to solve that is the 100% good or no good decision.
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I don't disagree with what you wrote. However, reading those rules, my impression is that the NHL has a rather specific understanding of "propelling" the puck. My comprehension is that they believe a puck is propelled when the player makes the puck move faster with his skate (ie. kicking a stationary puck in the crease), or makes the obvious soccer-type kicking motion. I don't think they view intent to deflect as "propelling" the puck.
In that sense, from my reading, Karlsson did not propel the puck in the eyes of the NHL. Therefore, this ruling would then move to the next consideration, which is if the deflection came as part of a player stopping or not. They thought he was stopping; I don't.
Just my two cents.