Capitals React To Waved-Off Goal; Laviolette Rips Call & Brind’Amour Fires Back

WASHINGTON — Trevor van Riemsdyk threw his arms in the air and broke out in celebration after burying a loose puck in the crease in the midst of a wild scramble in front. It had momentarily tied the game in the dying minutes of regulation for the Washington Capitals against the Carolina Hurricanes until Rod Brind'Amour challenged for goaltender interference.

After review, officials determined that there was goalie interference on the play, as T.J. Oshie made contact with Frederik Andersen in front while crashing the net. Andersen, who was down, was down and couldn't get up in time to stop van Riemsdyk's tally. Ultimately, the waved-off goal would be the difference in a 3-2 loss.

The defenseman wasn't thrilled with the call and shared his perspective, saying that Andersen wouldn't have stopped it anyway. However, at the end of the day, he had to defer to the referees and linesmen, and he also said that the team had plenty of chances to convert otherwise.

"I only saw it briefly, I just felt like he was already on his butt, so he didn't really know where the puck was," van Riemsdyk said. "So I thought maybe that'd be a goal. Unfortunately, my opinion doesn't matter. The guys in stripes'' do. They got a tough job, and it's hard to tell. So unfortunately it didn't go, but I mean, we had plenty of time to tie it up. Unfortunate that ended up being the difference, but yeah, I guess it was 50/50."

Oshie, whose interference led to the disallowed goal, offered his perspective and said that he wanted to get off Andersen after falling in the crease, but he didn't have much flexibility. However, he agreed with van Riemsdyk that the team had several other opportunities.

“Their call, so it's unfortunate but we had other chances I think. A bunch of power plays that we were unsuccessful on, didn’t even really generate too much momentum at times on it. So you know, disallowed goal, that’s the way she goes," Oshie said. "Wish I would’ve been able to get off him a little bit, I felt like there was no room behind me to really move once I got down there. So it was just kind of unfortunate but I thought the guys played hard tonight and you know, we had other chances to score for sure.”

Head coach Peter Laviolette wasn't as even-keel about it as his players, expressing his displeasure with the decision as he believed that the Hurricanes interfered with their own netminder.

"There's a loose puck in the crease, two players go in the crease. I think T.J. got a stick on it, to me he's got a scoring opportunity. He gets tripped from behind, but he doesn't fall on the goalie," Laviolette said. "The goalie goes down on his own and the puck squirts out quick. I think T.J. maybe was on his blocker for less than one second because he got tripped as he was going in for the rebound. And the pucks out the other side, and TVR put it in real quick and really the only person who was on the goalie was their person in the end. I don't understand it, so I don't agree with the call."

Carolina bench boss Rod Brind'Amour had a different response, standing by his challenge and saying that he had been mainly confident going in that it would go his team's way.

"Well, it's the rule. On the overhead, it's clear [Oshie[ goes in by himself and he takes a crack at the puck, but then he lies on the goalie for a split second," Brind'Amour said. "So by the letter of the law, you're not allowed to do that, so that's why I was pretty sure. But I think nobody's sure on these. Thankfully, we had the overhead because I couldn't tell the other way. Then, they showed the overhead, and clearly, his hand was on the pad holding him down for a second. Would it have mattered on that goal? That's not how it works, so it was an easy challenge for us."

The Capitals will meet the Hurricanes again on Saturday for the 2023 Stadium Series in Raleigh.