Bad call on a strange goal

[SpikeDDS]

(This thread may be better off in a different forum, @hf101. Feel free to move it to the most appropriate forum if it seems better located there.)

 

Mistakes get made. When mistakes get made on the ice, hockey teams will rightly suffer the consequences, because they bear the responsibility for the mistake.

 

But in last night’s Red Wings-Coyotes game, there was a very unusual goal scored. There was a scramble as a scurry of shots were made on Jimmy Howard. He made a couple of ridiculous saves, and then was also assisted by Tyler Bertuzzi who made a great save himself, after which the puck continued to bounce out to awaiting Coyotes who finally put the puck in the net.

 

Here’s the replay:

 

https://www.nhl.com/video/c-66520603

 

What makes the goal unusual was that the horn sounded and the lights went off after Bertuzzi made his great helping save. You can see Howard stop playing because of it. He had lost sight of the puck and assumed it was in the net. The whistle was never blown, but you can’t hear a whistle over the horn! And the spotlights shining right on the crease have to be distracting.

 

The goal was reviewed, and it was deemed a legal goal. It shouldn’t have been. The mistake was made by the arena staff, not by players on the ice. You have to give the benefit of the doubt to the disadvantaged team when off-ice malfunctions or mistakes affect the score of the game. If you don’t, it sets a precedent where an itchy trigger finger by the goal judge can make or break a game. That’s just not right.

 

If some of the lights went out in the arena during play, play stops. It stops for the same reason that the play should have stopped as soon as the horn went off and the spotlights came on. In my opinion, this is actually worse, because the spotlights are more distracting for the goalie in the net than they are for anyone else.

 

I do acknowledge that Howard was VERY down and out by the time the goal was scored, and will agree that it is doubtful that he would have been able to recover in time to make the save if the horn hadn’t blown. But it shouldn’t matter, because it DID blow, and play should have been stopped.

 

I think the league got this wrong. I welcome others’ opinions. 

[yave1964]

@SpikeDDS

 

  Man that one pissed me off. Here is what sucks the most. The Wings stopped skating, Arizona didn't, they got a goal out of it.

 

 My guess is there will be a rule against it by next year, the same thing happened earlier in the year to the Kings and the goal stood. 

 

 As a wings fan I cannot be too angry as we are in the 'lose for Hughes' chase right now but if I were one of the Wild, Oilers, Ducks I would be livid as all points matter right now as they are in a dog fight for the last playoff spot in the West. The final was 3-1 but who knows? If that goal had been disallowed and it had still been a 2-1 game at the time it might have had a different outcome. If Arizona eeks into the eight seed by a point they should put an asterisk next to it.