Leave it to the NHL’s offside rule to ruin an awesome moment.
Anaheim Ducks forward Trevor Zegras scored the third “Michigan” goal of his young NHL career on Wednesday night against Minnesota. The only catch? The goal was disallowed due to an offside ruling.
Zegras scored the lacrosse-style goal during the second period of Wednesday’s game at Honda Center. Zegras collected the puck off a rebound at the right side of the goal and cleanly scooped the puck onto his stick blade before skating behind the net and depositing the puck top shelf into the goal.
With TNT televising the broadcast, it appeared Zegras has just scored a nasty goal in front of a national audience. Unfortunately, Wild coach Dean Evason challenged the play for offside. The NHL reviewed the video replay and determined Anaheim defenseman Dmitry Kulikov entered the zone before the puck did.
Check out Zegras scoring another Michigan goal only to have it disallowed by the NHL for offside.
Zegras Michigan Goal:
Zegras was clearly disappointed when the offside ruling came down. He let out a frustrated sigh and shrugged his shoulders. He has a perfect celebration too, as he saluted the fans at Honda Center following his filthy shot.
This is a tough one. The NHL appears to have made the right call, but it had absolutely no impact on Zegras’ skillful shot. Taking back a goal just because another player was a split-second offside feels so wrong.
As mentioned above, Zegras has already scored multiple times with the Michigan move in the NHL. This might be Zegras’ smoothest Michigan to date, however, as he picked up the puck super cleanly and at a higher speed than previous attempts.
As you might expect, social media had a field day with the Michigan goal being taken back for offside. Many hockey fans simply felt it was on brand for the league and its controversial offside review process.
Trevor Zegras does the Michigan again but it's taken away after an offside review. Peak NHL pic.twitter.com/EiXbKqtRW0
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) November 10, 2022
THE CLEANEST MICHIGAN OF ALL TIME…RUINED BY A SKATEBLADE A MILLIMETER OFFSIDE.
I HATE THE OFFSIDE REVIEW.
— Nasher (@TheNasher61) November 10, 2022
We agree that it’s no fun to take away a filthy goal for something so minuscule. We propose a rule that if the goal is filthy enough, the challenge fails no matter what (only kidding).
Zegras’ night didn’t get any better after disallowed Michigan, as his Ducks went on to lose by a 4-1 score. Anaheim vs Minnesota has been a one-sided rivalry lately, as the Wild have taken 10 of the past 12 meetings between the two clubs.
We don’t doubt Zegras will pull off another Michigan goal soon, but it still sucks to see a display of skill like this one gets wiped off the board.