"Bellow shoulder" "Blame coach for not challenging" - NHL fans left divided over Leon Draisaitl high sticking puck before Evan Bouchard's game winner

Fans reacted as the Edmonton Oilers defeated the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 in Game 4 on a late goal by Evan Bouchard on Tuesday. However, there was controversy about whether Leon Draisaitl high-sticked the puck down before Bouchard's winner with 38 seconds left.

Under NHL rules, Draisaitl knocking down the puck above shoulder-height could have been reviewed as a "missed game stoppage," leading to a goal. In the final minute, the league can initiate a review rather than coaches needing to challenge.

Fans debated on social media whether Draisaitl's stick was illegal, leaving them divided on the controversial sequence. One fan tweeted.

"Well bellow shoulder. Refs fault... again." believing Draisaitl stayed within the rules.

Another fan blamed the Canucks coach:

"Blame your coach for not challenging then. He is the one who could have challenged it but didn’t."

Here are some fan reactions:

"When stick touched puck, it was clearly below the shoulder!" one fan wrote on X.

"Ron-I-Hate-Vancouver-Maclean says it's good, so you know it's not. A stick that high gets called 100% of the time. The rules are the rules until the Oilers are involved." another fan wrote.

None of the players thought it was a high stick. None of the refs thought it was a high stick. None of the coaches thought it was a high stick. Toronto head office didn't think it was a high stick. Vancouver fans after losing, that's a high stick! a user wrote.

"Was a good goal. But I’m sure Vancouver fans won’t think so." another user wrote.

Beyond the game-winner, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also tallied goals for Edmonton, while Calvin Pickard made 19 saves in his first career playoff start.

For Vancouver, Conor Garland and Dakota Joshua found the back of the net, while Arturs Silovs stopped 27 shots in the losing effort. The Oilers' victory evened the second-round series 2-2.

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Elliotte Friedman discusses Leon Draisaitl’s high sticking play

Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman recently shared his thoughts on the controversial Leon Draisaitl’s high-sticking before game-winning goal.

Friedman noted that as Leon Draisaitl was not directing the puck into the net, the threshold for a high-sticking infraction is the player's shoulder, rather than the crossbar. This distinction adds an extra layer of complexity to the rule interpretation.

Friedman revealed that he received a tip from an anonymous source who had watched the replay angle live and questioned the validity of the goal.

"Someone watched that angle live and said 'what do you think?'" Friedman said of a tip he received from an anonymous source. "It's got to be conclusive... I'm not seeing anything there that says to me that that would be a goal that would be disallowed."

The series next moves to Game 5 in Vancouver.