Manny Malholtra scored the game winner when the puck deflected off of his skate and in behind Marty Turco. The jackets rushed the ice and congratulated an excited Malholtra for what would have been a great bonding victory for the jackets. Seconds after the red light went on in the ref's booth signaling the play is under review.
These reviews rarely bode well for the jackets, remember the screw job in Minny early in the season? After looking at the replay it was obvious to me that it was a good goal and although it went off his skate, he clearly was just going with his momentum and trying to avoid Turco while being pushed from behind. This should be a quick review and we will gain the much needed two points and move on...wait...what is taking so long?
The longer these things go, the more nervous I become and last night was no exception. To me, this is an obvious call and there is NO conclusive evidence that would provoke a reversed call. Finally after several minutes, they declared the goal a 'no goal' and that Manny delivered a 'distinct kicking motion'. Keep in mind that a player is allowed to redirect the puck into the net with his skate, but as soon as there is any kind of hinge from back to front that would indicate kicking, the goals is revoked.
You be the judge now:
There is no doubt in my mind that if you wanted to, you could see a redirection, but tell me this: how is the guy going to 'kick' at the puck when he is on one leg with all his weight on that leg and his momentum moving forward? The guy is a super athlete, but he is not superman. Even members of the Stars themselves couldn't believe how that couldn't have been considered a goal. The real telling angle to me is the one right at the start of the video in real time. It clearly shows the speed at which he was traveling and the direction that he took in his effort to miss the goaltender.
Because it was considered no goal, the rest of the OT was to be played and the jackets did everything but close the deal. The shootout ended in the Stars' favor which I knew it would. Even when Leclaire is playing well he sucks in shootouts and tonight, he wasn't playing well. In fact, he looked completely lost and like he wouldn't have been a good goalie on our ball hockey team.
Hitch will likely get fined for his post game comments stating:
"We won the hockey game," Hitchcock said. "We won the hockey game. It was a good goal. I don't care what anybody says, we won the hockey game.
"We outplayed them They can put up whatever score they want down there, they can put up whatever score they want in the National Hockey League. We won the hockey game.
"That player did not kick it. All he tried to do was get out of the way of the goaltender."
Good for Hitch for taking a stand against a flat out egregious call. If it costs him a bunch of cash again, it is worth it. His team played hard in spite of Pazzy's highly substandard performance and twice came back from 2 goal deficits to tie the game late in the third to force OT. The team needed that extra point desperately and now that is at least two points, possibly three (had the jackets won in OT in Minny) that would have had them inside the playoff picture.
The system is broken and needs to be fixed. The faceless, nameless people who sit and make these calls in the war room continue stuffing their faces with pizza and popcorn making bad call after bad call don't give a crap. They go home with no accountability and no recourse and come back the next day ready to muck it up all over again.
Will it ever happen that the NHL will admit it's own wrong doing and reverse a call after the fact to prove to the fans that they are trying to make things right? Hey, it is the holiday season right, sometimes miracles do happen.
5 comments:
This is the one time that the league could reverse the call from the war room and give the jackets the point. As the Jackets won it in overtime, there would be no need to "finish" the game again.
However the league will not, can not, do anything. It would be a slipperly slope in which it would appear that the front office is at odds with the officials and the war room. It would show a lack of support and appear that the front office would be a rogue organization. Not to mention the backlash from the Dallas organization and the Dallas fans.
Simply put, that would not be a good political move.
The best thing that could happen is a immediate termination of someone in the war room and the rest of the war room be put on notice. Nonsense like this has to stop.
We can sugar coat this, but this was bias. If you are in a non-traditional market with a history of losing, they will make any excuse to reverse that call.
That was the biggest rip off ever! Of course the Jackets won that game.
I'm sick of it.
You are right Rayth-it would open a whole can of worms that the league clearly isn't prepared to deal with. Note: there was ZERO mention of any controversial overturned goal on NHL on the Fly this morning (on the NHL channel).
Oh they will keep this one quiet. There was no mention of it on TSN. Not one "recap" even called it controversial (sp?). Of course, I have only heard and read about 4 recaps.
Heck TSN still has said nothing about Brassard's injury. You would think that's big news up north.
Did you see Colin Campbell's response to questioning in Puckrackers?
“They’re adamant. They’re passionate. Look, every season there’s a club or two that, for whatever reason, has lots of tough calls go against them. They probably think the NHL is against them, too, but it’s not. It’s just not. We have very difficult calls to make, and we make them. It doesn’t matter who the player or the team is. We just make the call.”
“We watched it from numerous angles and at numerous different speeds. Before we make any ruling, we watch it one last time at regular speed. Sometimes we disagree on a call. But on this one we were unanimous that it wasn’t a goal. And there were eight of us in the booth.”
Basically exactly what they had to say. As if you were going to get a different response from them.
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