We all saw it last night... The Sharks won in OT following a BLATANT hand pass that everyone in the building, with the exception of the four guys in the stripes, missed. It was a horrible ending to an otherwise awesome game. Truly a worst case scenario, which was completely apparent as the referees, realizing that they missed the call but couldn't change anything, skated to the corner in an attempt to get the hell out of dodge...
How does this happen? Who/What is to blame?
We can certainly blame the 4 officials on the ice for not seeing the hand pass as it happened. Refs make mistakes, but this one should have been obvious. However, there is no doubt that Refs are more than a bit gun shy right now. The Vegas Major changed the entire playoffs... the lack of a major penalty to McAvoy versus Columbus....And now this...
All that being what it is, I am not blaming the refs for the NHL rule that states a hand pass is not a reviewable play...In fact, I give the one ref who spoke to an irate Binnington in the corner a ton of credit. I am not sure what he said to the Blues keeper, but it looked like he simply said, "we blew it and unfortunately its not a reviewable play."...At least I want to think that was the exchange because it appeared both he and Binnington understood each other.
I am blaming this patchwork review system that keeps adding things that can or can not be reviewed while ignoring the reality of the spirit of it all.
One missed offside against the Avalanche ages ago, and a few goals that could have been called goalie interference led those two situations to be reviewable. Should they be?
What should be reviewable???
I remember the Preds having a goal taken away because the puck was "headed" into the net a few years back, and despite that rule not actually being in the book the rule was kind of stretched to include scoring a goal by purposely using something other than your stick to score. We all know a goal that is batted in by your hand or kicked in by skate shouldn't count....If it's done on purpose, right? But if a player purposely goes to the net with hopes that a puck deflects off of any part of him that is allowed. But that was also on purpose....you are even allowed to purposely direct the puck with your skate blade as long as there is no "kicking motion."
If a puck is hit in with a high stick, that is reviewable, but if a puck is passed by a player whose stick is too high and another player scores a second later that is NOT reviewable...
And yet an offside that occurred 30 seconds up to a minute ago, as long as the puck never leaves the zone, can wipe a goal off the board.
WE NEED TO JUST STOP THIS RIDICULOUSNESS, AND ASK OURSELVES:
WHAT ARE WE TRYING TO DO HERE?
We are trying to get it right using the technology at hand without slowing the game down with review after review. The way to do that is way more obvious that "distinct kicking motions."
We need to be able to have referees in the press box area, high above the ice, reviewing the plays as they happen and if something was missed, it can be corrected before the on-ice guys even get to the booth at center ice.
And...
We need to make it so ANY RULE that is broken which directly results in a goal is reviewable. I don't care if it's interference, a hand-pass, kicking, the puck hit the netting and we missed it, the offside player was the reason DIRECTLY for the goal, there were too many men on the ice, etc..
ANY PLAY that was wrong, AND MISSED, and DIRECTLY leads to a goal can negate a goal.
ONLY THOSE PLAYS LEADING DIRECTLY TO GOALS. NO REVIEWS FOR PENALTY CALLS DURING THE GAME.
Get rid of the coaches challenges and set a time frame of ten seconds.
The second a goal is scored the UPSTAIRS BOOTH reviews the last ten seconds prior to the goal and assuming nothing illegal was missed...the goal counts. It isn't hard to look at the last ten seconds prior to a goal to see if anything happened. All that can occur before the next faceoff easily. If there is a question of something being wrong the upstairs guy can show the on-ice guys.
If a referee on ice calls a goal, the upstairs guy AUTOMATICALLY reviews it. If the upstairs guy disagrees, the refs can get together to discuss.
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