Hagel hand pass takes away Kucherov tying goal – Tough Call Review

Brandon Hegel stopped this puck from leaving the zone, knocking it down to Jake Gensel. 10 seconds later, Cooerov scores what the Tampa Bay Lightning believe is the tying goal, but it was taken off the board because it was deemed that this was a hand pass by Hegel to Gensel. And we’re all talking about the spirit of the rule, and we’re saying that he was just trying to stop the puck from hitting him and he’s just knocking it away from his body. And that’s all well and fine, but there’s a clear and distinct forward motion with that hand pushing the puck away from his body, just like everyone said. And I think this problem everyone’s having is with the wording from the situation room determined that Brandon Heaggel directed the puck to Jake Gensel with a hand pass. So, a lot of people are saying this must be deliberate then. And they’re saying he deliberately did it and that’s not what he did. But it also says in accordance with rule 79 where it says a player shall be permitted to stop or bat the puck with his open hand which is what Hegel did and the play shall not be stopped unless in the opinion of the ones officials he has directed the puck to a teammate. Notice how nowhere in that rule is the written the word deliberate or intentionally. All it has to be is what happened. And Hegel did use his hand to push the puck and direct it away from his body and it happened to go to Jake Ginsel. So he did direct the puck with a hand pass to his teammate. You can argue about why he did it, but it doesn’t have to be deliberate. It just has to be what happened. And it is what happened.

Brandon Hagel knocked the puck away from his body with a glove, and the Tampa Bay Lightning ended up keeping possession and scoring as a result. A review took the goal away as it was deemed to be a hand pass. Did they get it right?

8 comments

  1. I guess Cooper just wanted to donate 25k to the emergency fund with his post game comments haha. I wasn't sure on the full wording and hadn't seen someone post it, thanks as always Tough Call!

  2. Two things, it looks like the puck bounced off his arm before the his arm starts moving. And it looked to me like the other player had to make a change of direction to receive the puck, that doesn't sound so much like it was directed too the player

  4. I think it hit him more than it was a hand pass and he would have played the puck if he wasn't hooked/held then it was played by another player. Stupid rule that they can invalidate a goal based on 1 piece of the puzzle but not include the infraction by the pens player

  6. Everyone is crying about this even though these reviews happen all the time. Yeah it sucks it got wiped but the precedent is if a team gain's possession off the hand "pass" it's always blown dead or brought back.

  7. The closest thing that I have seen from any angle is that the puck hit his right arm and he flailed towards the puck with his left arm as a reaction to protect himself but missed the puck. In your zoomed in replay, which I appreciate seeing, it shows the puck moving off of his right ARM away from his body and it appears that his left HAND never touched it.

Leave a Reply