LOS ANGELES — It is only a matter of time before the NHL expands its use of video review. Change won’t arrive in time to satisfy the New York Rangers.
Henrik Lundqvist had a legitimate beef coming out of Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final after seeing Dwight King score a momentum-seizing goal for the Los Angeles Kings while leaning into him. The Kings forward was battling for position with Ryan McDonagh at the top of the goaltender’s crease and kept Lundqvist from being able to make a proper move towards a Matt Greene point shot.
The puck ended up hitting King and going in, bringing Los Angeles back to 4-3 and propelling them to yet another two-goal comeback.
The explanation referee Dan O’Halloran provided to Lundqvist on the ice was that the contact was made with him after the puck had already gone in the goal. Replays showed differently.
“I’m extremely disappointed on that call — or non-call,” Lundqvist said after Saturday’s 5-4 double overtime loss. “They’ve got to be consistent with that rule. … They score a goal and I can’t even move. It’s extremely frustrating for them to get life like that.
“After that, it’s a different game.”
The easiest thing you can do in a fast game played on ice is to second-guess the judgment calls of referees. There are bound to be mistakes. However, that is also the No. 1 reason why video replay will eventually be expanded — although defining exactly what can and can’t be reviewed will admittedly be no small task.
The league’s competition committee and general managers will each meet in the coming days in New York and the topic will have to be raised. It has been discussed a number of times in the past and you have to believe that a critical mass of support will eventually build to affect change.
The other three major professional sports leagues in North America have all expanded their video review processes in recent years and the quality (and quantity) of replays seems to improve with each passing season. It serves the interests of everyone to get calls right, especially on plays resulting in goals in games carrying as much meaning as these ones.
There is already plenty of space in the NHL rulebook devoted to protecting goalies — both inside and outside the crease. By the letter of the law, goals should not count when a player has made contact with the goaltender, which King clearly did with Lundqvist early in the third period of Game 2.
Had O’Halloran been permitted to review the tape in real time he might have agreed.
“I don’t expect a penalty on the play but they need to blow the whistle,” said Lundqvist. “A goalie can’t move when you have a guy like that on top of you. It’s such an important play of that game. I don’t buy (the referee’s) explanation.”
It must be noted that the Rangers had plenty of opportunities to rebound from that play. They still had a lead in the game and wound up playing more than 30 minutes of overtime before Kings captain Dustin Brown ended it. They even received two minutes, 37 seconds of power-play time in the first overtime period.
In other words, they didn’t exactly lose the game on the disputed King goal; it only felt like it immediately afterwards. The frustration was no doubt compounded by a shrinking margin for error as they now trail 2-0 in the Stanley Cup Final heading into Monday’s game at Madison Square Garden.
“We’re really upset about the result right now,” veteran Rangers forward Martin St. Louis said on Saturday night. “I don’t want to over-analyze it.”