The New Jersey Devils appeared to score the game-tying goal against the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night with under five minutes remaining in the third period. Connor Brown took a Dougie Hamilton shot out of the air, placed it on the ice, and Linus Ullmark put his stick down to pop it into the net.
Former Devils coach and current Ottawa Senators head coach Travis Green was livid, and it caused the referees to take a look at their decision. After announcing on the ice that it was a good goal call, they went to the Toronto situation room. That’s where things went nuts.
The referees came back and said that it was no longer a good goal by Brown, calling it a hand pass. There’s an issue with that. No Devils player touched the puck after Brown knocked the puck onto the ice.
We checked the NHL rulebook to see what could possibly be going on here. The call didn’t make sense, and the situation was even muddier, as it directly led to a loss and likely the end of a team’s season. Sure, the Senators scored two goals after this, but that’s not a likely outcome if the Devils aren’t still desperate for a goal the other way.
Here is the full rule for hand passes:
"A player shall be permitted to stop or “bat” a puck in theNHL Rule 79.1
air with his open hand, or push it along the ice with his hand, and the
play shall not be stopped unless, in the opinion of the on-ice officials,
he has directed the puck to a teammate, or has allowed his team to
gain an advantage, and subsequently possession and control of the
puck is obtained by a player of the offending team, either directly or
deflected off any player or official. If, in the opinion of the on-ice
officials, the puck has deflected off a player’s hand, and no advantage
has been gained by the team, it will not constitute a violation for the
purpose of this rule. "
So, that’s quite a bit of jargon and it’s open for interpretation. Basically, the referees determined that his “hand pass” gave him an advantage that caused the goal. It doesn’t technically have to be a pass for it to be a hand pass, but that feels like we’re losing the spirit of the rule. Brown was trying to pass to himself, and Linus Ullmark got in his way.
However, there’s nowhere in the rulebook that says you can overturn a goal for a hand pass. There is a very vague rule that says that any goal can be overturned simply if the referees missed a stoppage. Now, this is supposed to be used for things like the puck hitting the netting or touching a player on the bench, but, according to the letter of the law, it can be stretched to this.
"The standard for overturning the call in the event of a “GOAL” call on the ice is that the NHL Situation Room, after reviewing any and all available replays and consulting with the On-Ice Official(s), determines that the play should have been stopped but was not at some point after the puck entered the attacking zone but prior to the goal being scored; where this standard is met, the goal will be disallowed. Potential infractions that would require a play stoppage in the offensive zone include, but may not be limited to: Hand Pass (Rule 79); High-Sticking the Puck (Rule 80); and Puck Out of Bounds (RuleNHL 2025-26 Rulebook
85). "
So basically, the Devils lost the game, and essentially their season, on a technicality. To be fair, Brown should have just put the puck on the ice and shot it. He would have scored. It was a bad play on his part, as well.