The Capitals have been on the wrong side of calls and challenges all year, and Monday was no different.
The Washington Capitals have been on the wrong side of calls and challenges to open the 2023-24 season, and Monday was no different, as a late third-period high-sticking penalty against Martin Fehervary led to the game-winner in a 2-1 loss to the San Jose Sharks. It turns out, though, that Fehervary shouldn't have been in the box in the first place.
Per The Washington Post's Bailey Johnson, the Capitals have been informed that the officials incorrectly called Fehervary for high-sticking and that it should not have been a penalty.
Fehervary was playing the puck and following through when he clipped Anthony Duclair up high. He received two minutes for high sticking, and though the call was heavily contested in the moment by head coach Spencer Carbery and captain Alex Ovechkin, the Slovak blueliner still had to sit. Near the end of his penalty, Luke Kunin scored the game-winner.
Per the NHL Rulebook, Rule 60.1, a player is "permitted accidental contact on an opponent if the act is committed as a normal windup or follow through of a shooting motion."
Carbery told reporters after the loss that referee Jean Hebert explained that because Fehervary didn't complete the play and only made partial contact with the puck.
"The way Jean described it to me is that you have to make a pass or a shot. Marty is trying to rim that puck, and he nicks it. So he touches the puck and then he follows through," Carbery explained. "But I guess the way the rule is described is that puck has to get completed, the play has to get completed. So whether it's a pass or a shot, that's the way that Jean described it to me. I thought as long as he makes contact with the puck and you're trying to make a pass and say you nick it, but it goes left or right or wherever it ends up going, and you follow through, I thought that wasn't a penalty. But apparently, that is the way the rulebook describes the way that Jean told me."
Although that could have changed the course of the game, the Capitals were also done in by a lack of own offensive success, as they went 0-for-3 on the power play and, despite several chances, struck only once on Mackenzie Blackwood.