The Olympics break gives us plenty of time to observe, analyze, and reflect on what we’ve seen so far this season in the NHL. One topic that has been of interest to me on the NHL media site is the coach’s challenges statistics. Last week, I took a look at the offside challenges to see if Montreal Canadiens’ coach Martin St-Louis was right when he said he felt his team had lost a lot of goals to offside challenges. This week, I thought it could be interesting to look into goaltender interference challenges.
Of the 163 coaches’ challenges that have been initiated this season, 67 were for goaltender interference, and they led to 24 goals being disallowed. For a 36% success rate, given the fact that an unsuccessful challenge leads to a minor penalty, one has to be careful when using that from the coach’s toolbox.
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How many times has Martin St-Louis tried to use it? Twice. How many times was he successful? Once, against the Chicago Blackhawks. He was unsuccessful when he pulled that card against the Colorado Avalanche, but there was no harm done since they managed to kill the penalty.
Which team has used that card the most? The Washington Capitals made six challenges, two of which were successful. Their four unsuccessful challenges led to two power-play goals against the Ottawa Senators and the Vancouver Canucks.
Four teams have made 5 coaches’ challenges: the Calgary Flames, the Blackhawks, the Senators, and the Pittsburgh Penguins. Calgary was successful twice and didn’t give up any power-play goals when the challenge failed. Chicago also saw two goals being disallowed, and didn’t give up any power-play goals either. As for Ottawa, goals were disallowed twice, and there was no harm done on the power play conceded. Meanwhile, none of the Penguins’ challenges were successful, but they only gave up one power-play goal.
Just one team made four coaches’ challenges: the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Ontario outfit was successful three times but allowed a power-play goal when its challenge failed.
Which team has suffered the most from interference calls? Chicago. Conor Bedard and Co. are the only team with three goals disallowed, while eight teams had two, and five teams (including the Canadiens) had one.
It’s interesting to see that the Hawks, who are one of the teams that have used the challenge more often, are also its biggest victims. As for the Canadiens, it appears that they are much more disciplined around the net than they once were, back when Brendan Gallagher was younger, for instance.
Only twice this season has a team challenged a Canadiens’ goal for goalie interference. In contrast, in 2015-16, the first year those stats are available, a Habs’ goal was challenged for goaltender interference nine times, leading to four disallowed goals. There’s definitely been some progress there.
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