The Red Wings fell 3-1 to the Stars last night. But it wasn’t without some help from the (horrendous) officiating. Detroit was denied a game-tying goal on a dubious botched call. With about 13 minutes left in the final period, Dallas backup goalie Alex Auld let a wrist shot get by. Everybody on the ice assumed he’d stopped it until Brad May noticed the puck was in the net.
The officials quickly called it “no goal” even though the whistle hadn’t stopped the play. Unsurprisingly, the referees went to the video review to confirm their call. If you didn’t know, the NHL has a hilarious replay policy where ALL plays are reviewed by the mysterious head office in Toronto. Here’s Able to Yzerman’s recap of head referee Dennis LaRue’s call:
“The whistle was blown to kill the play.” The whistle came at least a full second after the goal. What we have here is a LaRue or Auger screw-up, then a LaRue or Auger ego that won’t let them allow to admit, or even consider, their own mistake.
This is pure insanity. I don’t even understand how they got this one wrong. It’s not a judgment call or a 50/50 play or even some ridiculous NFL rule about what is a catch or fumble. It’s hard to even imagine the logic behind upholding the original ruling.
Oh, and here’s the awesome Brad May and Krys Barch fight from the game as well. Brad May looks like he could be an old timey sailor, but he’s actually an NHL enforcer. Here he takes on Krys Barch — the two men have now fought five times in the past three years. There are a ton of bombs in this one and ends up going pretty long. I give it an 8 out of 10.
