Referee Dave Jackson Breaks Down Onside Ruling On Cale Makar's Game 1 Tally
Cale Makar scored a massive tie-breaking goal for the Avalanche last night that caused a stir in the hockey world. Seemingly half of people believe it was offsides, while half believe we have a good, hockey goal. The NHL reviewed it & judged the play onside. Here's the goal:
Now at first look, it was clearly offsides right? Wrong (apparently). The ruling was that Makar did not have possession of the puck, despite having handled it a second previous in the form of a self-pass. Some might call that possession, others may disagree. Two schools of thought. However, in accordance to the NHL rulebook, the play was onside & perfectly legal. Referee Dave Jackson, currently a consultant for ESPN, broke down the play on his personal twitter:
This discussion likely isn't over, especially if we see a rise in players 'self-passing' the puck to themselves to avert offsides. Or that's exactly the type of play the league wants as it will increase scoring, which may result in greater viewership. Tough to say, but Game 1 was electric & I don't think it's fair to say the call (right or wrong) cost Edmonton the game. They were chasing the Avalanche around all night & despite a late comeback effort, Colorado was the better team in Game 1.
| POLL | ||
JUIN 1 | 158 ANSWERS Referee Dave Jackson Breaks Down Onside Ruling On Cale Makar's Game 1 Tally Do you think the league got the call right? | ||
| Yes, correct call | 75 | 47.5 % |
| No, wrong call | 83 | 52.5 % |
| LIST OF POLLS | ||
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YESTERDAY
MAY 21, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Juraj Slafkovsky | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Nick Suzuki | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Cole Caufield | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Phillip Danault | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Ivan Demidov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Seth Jarvis | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Eric Robinson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Alexandre Texier | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Sebastian Aho | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Alexandre Carrier | - | 1 | 1 | |
| William Carrier | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jake Evans | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Kaiden Guhle | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Alex Newhook | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Andrei Svechnikov | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Frederik Andersen | - | - | - | |
| Josh Anderson | - | - | - | |
| Jackson Blake | - | - | - | |
| Zachary Bolduc | - | - | - | |
| Jalen Chatfield | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||