The Calgary Flames got a very weird Islanders goal overturned via coach’s challenge

So here’s what happened: It was the end of a shift for both teams, and the Flames poked the puck into the neutral zone, leaving a couple Islanders players straggling to get out of the Calgary zone. Islanders defender Mike Reilly went to dump the pump in, then turned and skated back to his bench. The cameras on Sportsnet’s broadcast followed the puck’s expected path – in behind the Flames’ net – and even Jacob Markstrom went behind his net to play the expected dump-in.

But the puck actually hit Chris Tanev, on his way to the door of the Flames’ bench, and bounced back to the blueline. Islanders forward Kyle Palmieri retrieved the puck and fired it into the open Flames net. However, Pierre Engvall – who was already in the Flames zone prior to Reilly’s dump-in – still hadn’t gotten out of the zone and was still off-side.

At first blush, though, the goal probably counted because aside from the oddness and on-ice confusion of the off-side situation, the goal did appear to go in legally.

Here’s the league’s explanation of the challenge:

Video review determined that New York’s Pierre Engvall preceded the puck into the offensive zone and was in an off-side position prior to Kyle Palmieri’s goal. According to Rule 38.9, “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 one or more Players on the attacking team preceded the puck into the attacking zone prior to the goal being scored and that, as a result, the play should have been stopped for an “Off-Side” infraction; where this standard is met, the goal will be disallowed.”

Was it a weird goal? Yes. Weird enough that it took Sportsnet until the first intermission to find a good angle of what the heck happened. Was it a legal goal? Definitely not, and the review by the officials of the coach’s challenge took no time at all.

The weird goals we can recall was the infamous Mike Smith “butt goal” from 2013.