The irony was thick as Islander fans lamented the officiating in Florida's 2-1 win in Brooklyn Wednesday night. Both sides could be upset after bad call after bad call, but any objective fan from either side looking in the mirror knows the series is tied because of bad officiating.
At worst Florida should be up 3-1, if not have closed out the series Wednesday night. They simply have been the better team. This writer absolutely loathes talking about officiating, and over a long regular season knows things usually even out. But in the playoffs officiating gaffes can be devastating. No question Florida has been on the wrong side of most of the bad calls.
Conservatively speaking, the officials in this series have taken three good goals away from the Panthers and given the Islanders one. That is the difference between a 3-1/4-0 and 2-2 series right now. Florida certainly has played well enough to have won each game.
“It was difficult for us, tough goals for us,” said Jaromir Jagr, who assisted on Florida’s first goal. “We had three goals disallowed in the past two games, and it seems every call goes against us. But we kept fighting. This is the playoffs; it’s tough. Every centimeter of the ice is a war. I’m glad we won it and are going home to our rink.”
If the roles were completely reversed, I would be saying the same thing for the Islanders and discussing how fortunate/unfair it was for the Panthers to be in such a position after getting widely outplayed.
But the sad truth is all hockey fans have to come to the realization that hockey officiating seems to be at an all-time low. It can be downright maddening to figure out what is a penalty and what isn't...
...what is a good goal and what isn't.
On and on it goes.
For Florida, it has been an uphill battle as they try to back up their #2 seed in the East while gaining respect from the officials at the same time.
It's a Catch 22 of sorts because how can the Panthers gain respect if the officials believe their bad calls are good? This is a league-wide issue of course. In no way are the Panthers more at a disadvantage than anyone else. But of all the playoff series currently being contested, the Islanders and Panthers seem to be the most evenly matched. That makes such officiating/replay mistakes that much more damaging.
On this night, the Panthers prevailed.
After losing a heartbreaker in an overtime they dominated Sunday night, they played a solid, gritty game when they needed it most.
Defenseman Alex Petrovic was widely criticized for his poor play Sunday. He was the social media scapegoat as overreactive fans called for his immediate benching.
But the hockey gods work in mysterious ways, and it was Petrovic's game-winner at 9:25 of the 3rd period that lifted the Panthers from a potential catastrophic loss to full of hope that they will advance.
Petro received the "Spacey In Space" sweatshirt as Florida's MVP.
The Panthers got a huge scare as it looked like Jonathan Huberdeau was seriously hurt on yet another disallowed goal that was an incorrect call. As he was trying to push the puck past Thomas Greiss they collided. Anyone that knows what it looks like when someone tears their ACL feared the worse for the top line forward.
But the initial review incorrectly upheld the no-call on the ice saying that Huberdeau interfered with Greiss. Florida head coach Gerard Gallant desperately and inexplicably decided to challenge the review. Naturally, he lost. The game commentators and most experts on social media said it was a good goal and they were perplexed as to why it wasn't.
“I still don’t understand it, they tried to explain the rule to me, but it looked like a good goal to me,” Gallant said. “The puck was in the net and they didn’t really make a call.”
The reviews took about 10 minutes, which gave time for Huberdeau to shake it off and not miss a shift. He admitted afterwards that he was scared as well about how bad his injury might be, but the pain subsided quickly for him to return.
Through it all Teddy Purcell and Petrovic goals were the difference in a hard fought game that sets the stage for Friday night. If Florida continues to put forth efforts like they did Wednesday night they should be in good shape to win this series whether it goes 6 or 7 games.
But the one factor that keeps things unpredictable is the officiating. Hopefully that will stop being as much of the storyline as it has been to this point.
The now best of 3 series starts Friday at 8pm EST.
Dan Spiegel
Florida Panthers Media
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