Quote:
Originally Posted by Enoch Root
By propelling the puck, he didn't have possession - literally.
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You are confusing the term possession with control. As stated before, possession is given to the last person to touch the puck. In both situations Makar and McDavid had possession since they were last to touch the puck. For the McDavid situation the question is more about control.
Word for word what is stated in this years rule book is that control is defined as
"The act of propelling the puck with the stick, hand or feet. Control of the puck is not lost when contact with the puck is made by an opponent, the boards or the net, provided the player in control of the puck continues propelling the puck."
Connor had control of the puck until O'Reilly hit Connor's stick just after the blue line making it so he could not continue to propel the puck. No where in the definition does it indicate that "Control" expressly means physical contact. If a player is controlling the puck with his feet there are instances of contact but it's not perpetual, same with moving the puck by hand. I would argue there is a proximity of control where as long as the puck is within a range it can be deemed to be in control of the last player who touched it. You can't say someone dumping the puck has control of the puck because they last propelled the puck up the ice but stick handling through a defender definitely counts as control in my eyes.