Rick McAdoo <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
 
>Team A Player is inside the offensive zone fighting for the puck. No
>other Team A player is inside the zone, just Team B players.  The puck
>squirts along the boards to a Team B player, who starts out of the
>zone.  After entering center ice, the Team B player cuts back toward
>his own zone to avoid a check and (without being hit or directly
>checked) loses the puck, which then slides back into the Team B zone.
>Team A player, who had not yet left the zone, picks up the puck as it
>crosses the blue line and wheels to attack the net.  The linesman blows
>his whistle at this point and says it is offside.
 
{Note that Rick's description includes "the Team B player cuts back toward
his own zone to avoid a check and (without being hit ... ) loses the puck,
which then slides back into the Team B zone."}
 
Glen Keeney <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
 
>6-32 c.  If, however, the puck is intercepted cleanly by a member of the
>defending team and is carried or passed by the player's team into the
>neutral zone, the offside shall be ignored and play permitted to continue,
>even if a member of the attacking team has preceded the puck into the
>attacking zone. (Officials will carry out this rule by means of the slow
>whistle.)
 
>6-32 d  If a player legally carries or passes the puck back into his own
>defending zone while a player of the opposing team is in that defending
>zone, the offside shall be ignored and play permitted to continue.  (No slow
>whistle.)
 
>I read this to say that the Team A player was correct, he was not offside.
 
 
 
The way an offside play of this nature is normally called is by the intention
of the puck carrier.  According to the situation, the Team B player didn't
intentionally carry the puck back across his defending blue line, he lost
control of the puck.
 
If the player _intentionally_ carries the puck back over his own blue line,
or passes it to a team mate in the defensive zone, the play is allowed to
continue.
 
If I am the linesman in that situation, I will put up a slow whistle when the
puck crosses the blue line, and blow the whistle when one of the following
things happens:
 
1) the Team A player touches the puck
2) it becomes clear that the puck has been shot on goal or around the goal
3) it becomes clear that body contact between a Team B player and an offside
Team A player may occur
4) a Team B player gains control and does not move the puck out of his zone
in a reasonable amount of time
5) the puck becomes unplayable
 
 
Dave Aiello (RPI '89)
Consultant
J.P. Morgan & Company, Inc.
New York
 
USA Hockey Level 4 Official
Member, NIHOA, Metro NY/NJ Chapter