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Worst Call by a Ref You’ll See in a While

Detroit lost last night against Dallas 1-3 in a game where special teams made all the difference.  Despite the Red Wings recent success on the power play and penalty kill, they went 0 for 4 on the power play and allowed 2 short-handed goals.

Unfortunately this game was all but ruined by a not even “controversial” called-off goal in the Third Period that would have tied the game at 2-2.  It was blatantly and obviously a botched call, perhaps the worst I have seen since instant replay became available.   Here’s the clip of it in case you missed it:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nZpCHtQYYI&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

“It was a goal,” Mike Babcock said. “I know what the league said, it’s non-reviewable.  The guy never meant to blow the whistle, it was a shot.  It was in on the shot.  It’s as dumb as I’ve ever seen.”

The puck is shot from Brad May and goes directly in, without any question.  Now, the call on the ice was completely understandable because everyone on the ice with the exception of Brad May and Dallas goaltender Alex Auld lost sight of the puck when it was pressed up against the inside of the net by Auld’s pad.  The office in Toronto reviews all goals in the NHL for moments exactly like this, and they regularly overturn called goals when the puck was high-sticked or kicked in, and they regularly count goals that went in the bet without the refs seeing it.  For this reason, because they have instant replay, they got rid of the goal line judge.

Except if a ref claims he “intended” to call the whistle before the puck was actually in the net, all bets are off and the office in Toronto and the instant replay is not even considered.  The referee in question, Dennis LaRue, also happens to be the ref who allowed Pittsburgh to have 6 men on the ice for over 20 seconds in last year’s Stanley Cup Finals.

The intent of the rule is fair, but every year numerous mistakes are made because of it, including in the playoffs, like the Marian Hossa called off goal against Anaheim in the Western Conference Finals last year or the numerous called-off goals from phantom goalie interference on Holmstrom.  The same thing happened this year where instant replay showed a legitimate goal from Tod Bertuzzi was called off because the ref “intended” to call the play dead earlier, having lost sight of it.  And this is only the Red Wings, as this type of thing happens across the league to other teams as well.  It is a big problem.

What makes this one so unique, and even more egregious is the fact that the only time the ref could have possibly lost sight of the puck was when it was already in the net.  He blew the whistle a full 3 seconds after the goal was scored, and with instant replay they could have easily rectified the situation and counted the goal.  Except the ref stuck to the story of “intending” to blow the whistle earlier.

And just when was that?  When May was shooting the puck?  Or during the split second after it was shot and before it went directly into the net?  Ok, why on earth would you call that play dead?  You’d like to think there was at least some accountability from the refs in this league.

The NHL can already overturn the on-ice ref in numerous situations, as they are fallible human beings, but to not even review a play as blatantly obvious as this is just a joke.

The sad thing is, the answer is simple and obvious.  Simply use the tools you have available to review every goal and between the refs and Toronto, make the best call.  The NHL’s official response is that “They can not review every play, or the game would take too long” which completely ignores that we are talking about actual goals, not “every single play”.  They already review all goals, and in 90% of these situations can overturn and correct the on-ice ref’s ruling, just not in this specific instance where he “intended” to blow the whistle earlier.

If the league can institute the “Avery Rule” in the middle of the season, you would think they could make a simple rule change to allow instant replay to be used in all goals, since they are already reviewed in the first place.  It does not take an over-haul of the NHL to rectify this problem.

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