Opinion: Offside Challenges Are Hockey's Biggest Buzzkill

Editor’s Note: By now, your grumpy uncle has vacated your Thanksgiving table (we hope). Before our grumpy hockey uncle departed, he left us some scribblings about video review, based on the last two Seattle Kraken games.

The coach’s challenge for offside has got to go. GOT. TO. GO.

When the Seattle Kraken played the San Jose Sharks at Climate Pledge Arena Wednesday, Jared McCann scored on a sweet backhand. Except the Sharks coach got word from his video team that the Kraken were offside entering the zone.

What a buzzkill. Especially when the game was held up while the linespersons looked at a tiny video monitor, and talked to NHL folks in Toronto viewing the play on giant screens inside the “Situation Room.” No goal, they eventually ruled.

Matty Beniers has had a rough enough start to his season without taking away his goal vs. Vancouver. Caroline Anne Photo

In the very next Kraken outing Friday against the Vancouver Canucks, Matty Beniers scored a power play goal to tie the game and send fans into a frenzy. Beniers went to one knee for a celebratory fist pump, and why not – this would be just his 4th goal in a slow-starting season.

But guess what? Another coach’s challenge, another delay, another Kraken skater found to be offside, another buzzkill. Seattle never did get a tying goal after that.

What follows is everything wrong with the offside challenge – although if I think hard enough, there might be more. And the feeling would be identical if the calls had benefited the Kraken.

Millimeters Shouldn’t Matter

Guess what these unhappy players… Catalina Fragoso-USA TODAY Sports

On rare occasion, a linesperson might be positioned incorrectly, or had their view obstructed. With the hyper-speed of today’s game, the vast majority of zone entries simply happen too swiftly for even the highly trained human eye to correctly judge down to the millimeter.

A too-early entry is usually by an eyelash… except when the player is offside by half an eyelash. No reasonable observer can conclude the offending team gained an unfair advantage in these circumstances. The severity of the remedy, overturning a goal – the most significant event a game can have – violates the spirit, if not the letter, of the rule.

Zone Entries And Goals Often Distantly Related

…in this trio of game photos… Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports

A goal generally is scored several seconds or more after the zone entry, and usually with intervening events. So the defending team almost always has ample opportunity to skate or shoot the puck back to neutral ice.

Other types of video review allow room for interpretation. If an interference review determines a goalie had the opportunity to reset his position after contact, a goal can be allowed to stand.

The impact (or non-impact) of a zone entry on a a goal should be similarly considered.

Won’t Someone Think Of The Fans?

…can’t believe. Hint: it starts with “off” and ends with “side.” Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

Hockey is an entertainment product. Watching on TV as officials pour over replays for several minutes is anti-climactic, and an invitation to look for the remote.

At the arena, cheering for a home-team goal disallowed minutes later feels like bait-and-switch. Or like holding a winning lottery ticket, quitting your job, inviting friends and family to a party… only to then be told, “Oops, sorry. Your ticket is one number off.”

Goal-or-no-goal video reviews are unavoidable, necessary, and quite different. They create suspense.

Not offside challenges, which feel like a team trying to win a “get out of jail free” card for a goal they couldn’t prevent.

“Getting It Right” Not An Absolute

Isn’t “Getting It Right” always the most important consideration, regardless of consequences?

NHL fans gladly spend good money to see superstars like Alex Ovechkin – but not doing this. Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

No. Not in every case. Clearly, the NHL agrees. Other hockey plays aren’t reviewable, such as whether a puck shot over the glass from the defensive zone was deflected.

Just because a technology exists doesn’t mean relying on it is automatically the wisest choice. Sports leagues must weigh replay’s obvious value on a category-by-category basis. Philosophically, reducing the “human element” of officiating should also be a factor.

On balance, coach’s challenges for offside do more harm to the integrity of the game than trying to ensure players didn’t enter the offensive zone tenths-of-a-second ahead of the puck.