In hockey, why can goals be scored off bodies?

[The Panther]

On the main board today, they're predictably going off on Penguins' goalie Jarry for griping about a goal against off an opponent's body. This made me wonder: What's the background of goals being allowed off bodies? It wasn't always like that, right? How did the rule come to be the way it is?

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[rmartin65]

On the main board today, they're predictably going off on Penguins' goalie Jarry for griping about a goal against off an opponent's body. This made me wonder: What's the background of goals being allowed off bodies? It wasn't always like that, right? How did the rule come to be the way it is?

Why wouldn't it be like that?

I haven't been keeping an eye out for it or anything, but I don't recall seeing any goals being called back because they went off a body as I've gone through the old game reports.

 

[The Panther]

Why wouldn't it be like that?

I can think of lots of reasons why it wouldn't be like that. In baseball, a batter can't put the ball into play with their leg/arm, for example. A tennis player can't have a ball bounce off his/her body and back over the net in the midst of a match.

The main reasoning, I suppose, would be to eliminate ambiguity. Today, there is often confusion over what is a "distinct kicking motion", which hasn't reduced ambiguity much.

I haven't been keeping an eye out for it or anything, but I don't recall seeing any goals being called back because they went off a body as I've gone through the old game reports.

This is what I'm wondering about. In, say, the 1920s, did goals count if pucks went off attacking players' body parts?

 

[JianYang]

I've questioned this as much as I've questioned why goals can be scored in soccer using other parts than just the foot....which is not at all.

 

[rmartin65]

I can think of lots of reasons why it wouldn't be like that. In baseball, a batter can't put the ball into play with their leg/arm, for example. A tennis player can't have a ball bounce off his/her body and back over the net in the midst of a match.

In baseball you get a base. You can score off your body in soccer. You can catch off a body in football. It doesn’t seem unusual.

The main reasoning, I suppose, would be to eliminate ambiguity. Today, there is often confusion over what is a "distinct kicking motion", which hasn't reduced ambiguity much.

Fair

This is what I'm wondering about. In, say, the 1920s, did goals count if pucks went off attacking players' body parts?

Like I said, it’s not something that I’ve been trying to keep tabs on, so I could easily have missed something (or several somethings), but I don’t recall seeing goals called back for that reason.

 

[MadLuke]

I can think of lots of reasons why it wouldn't be like that. In baseball, a batter can't put the ball into play with their leg/arm, for example. A tennis player can't have a ball bounce off his/her body and back over the net in the midst of a match.

I feel in those, hitting the ball is more an explicit goal.

In hockey you could score without ever even touching it (by pushing an opponent into the net that has it for example), soccer-football-basketball are maybe closer where the goal is defined by the things ending in a goal/zone and you can do it in a lot of ways.

In tennis, you cannot double touch it with the racquet either.

 

[Stephen]

This is 99.999999% a Tristan Jarry problem rather than a hockey one.

 

[Overrated]

Isn't it the same in soccer? Hockey is much more similar to soccer than to sports like baseball or tennis so those comparisons are a bit off.

 

[The Panther]

Isn't it the same in soccer? Hockey is much more similar to soccer than to sports like baseball or tennis so those comparisons are a bit off.

Not really, because in hockey you use a tool to score with, but in soccer you have no tool.

I just wondered if there was any point in history, or in any particular country etc., where it was forbidden for goals to be scored off the body.