Oh boy. This is going to be fun. Let's go back to the 2008 postseason when the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils were facing off in the opening round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. With the Rangers on a power play, noted agitator Sean Avery positioned himself in front of Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur, raised his arms in the air, and proceeded to attempt to screen the future hall of fame goaltender by moving his arms -- and stick -- back and forth. The NHL, deciding it can't have any of these shenanigans, wasted no time in implementing the "Sean Avery rule" which was an interpretation of rule 75.At the time, the NHL released the following statement: "An unsportsmanlike conduct minor penalty (Rule 75) will be interpreted and applied, effective immediately, to a situation when an offensive player positions himself facing the opposition goaltender and engages in actions such as waving his arms or stick in front of the goaltender's face, for the purpose of improperly interfering with and/or distracting the goaltender as opposed to positioning himself to try to make a play."
During Friday's Flyers-Flames game, Philadelphia's Chris Pronger was called for it during the overtime period of his team's 3-2 shootout loss, negating what would have been a game-winning goal.
With Calgary's Mark Giordano in the penalty box, Pronger was positioned in front of Flames goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff, and with his back turned to the net, removed his hand from his stick and appeared to wave it in front of Kiprusoff's face. Just a moment later, the puck, shot by Mike Richards, came through and went into the net for what appeared to be the game-winner.
The goal was eventually disallowed and Pronger was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct.
The issue, of course, is that Pronger wasn't actually facing the goaltender as Avery was, which is what the league's interpretation of the rule was back in 2008 -- the player had to be facing the goalie. Continuing with the gong show is that the "rule" isn't actually listed as part of Rule 75 (at least not as far as the one that's made public by the league). All we have to go on is the league's interpretation of the rule from 2008.
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