 Let's say you're watching a hockey game and the puck goes into the net the goal light goes on But the referee waves his arms back and forth. No goal. Why not? Well, let's take a look at some of the most common reasons that a goal would be disallowed Most of them are pretty easy to understand So we'll go through them pretty quickly like this first one Which says that it will be no goal when the puck has been directed batted or thrown into the net by a player Using something other than his stick Closely related to that one is that the goal does not count if the puck goes into the net as a result of a distinct kicking motion Now the puck can deflect off of a player's skate even if that player is deflecting the puck off his skate on purpose However, he cannot kick the puck into the net As you likely know from the high sticking on the puck roll if the puck makes Contact with an attacking player stick while it is above the crossbar and then goes directly into the net It will not count as a goal Next is that a team who has a delayed penalty on them cannot score unless the other team Accidentally shoots the puck into their own net So in most cases plague it would continue even if a puck deflected off a player of the offending team But if that puck deflects off of them and then into the net Even if they never had possession of the puck the goal will still not be allowed No puck can be deflected directly into the net by a referee This is rarely ever an issue because usually the referees will stand either behind the net or Around where the players are rather than in the middle of play A goal will not count when an offensive player interferes with the goalie in the crease Now for a long time in the NHL players were not even allowed to be in the crease when a goal was scored And while they can be in the crease now the offensive players still have to give the goalie some room Still players are allowed to stand in front of the goalies to block their view But they cannot interfere with them if they are in the crease Closely related to that is that the goal will not count if a goalie is pushed into the net after he makes the save The play is not over until the whistle blows So you might see a play where the puck is close to the goal line Even if the goalie seems like he has possession of it He could still fall back into the net and the goal would count if the whistle hasn't blown yet So basically this rule was saying if the goalie is pushed in then that goal will not count Speaking of the referees and blowing the whistle in the event something happens that prevents the referee from blowing his whistle Right away. Maybe somebody bumps into him and it falls out of his mouth or something like that When the referee deems the play over it is over even if he has not yet had time to blow his whistle On occasion a goal will be scored that goes into the net and bounces out so quickly that it won't be obvious Whether the puck went into the net or hit the post Now when this happens play will continue until it stops for some other reason and then the referees will go watch the replay To see whether or not the puck actually went into the net If the situation were to arise that a goal is scored that isn't seen right away and then play continues And then the other team goes down to the other end of the ice and scores Once the referee looks at the replay to determine that the first goal was in fact a goal then the second goal Will not count Finally if the net becomes dislodged even if it's only on one side Before the puck goes into the net the goal will not count This might seem like it might make the situation easy for a defender to just knock the net off to be safe But if a defender or the goalie is caught knocking the net off on purpose it is a penalty So only when it comes off by accident will the goal not be allowed