Add Montreal Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher to the growing group of NHL players who are frustrated with the league's video-review system.
In the Canadiens' 6-4 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday, Gallagher had some strong words for a review that went against his team.
"It's incompetence," a visibly frustrated Gallagher told reporters after the game. "Players are frustrated all over the league. It seems like there's zero consistency. It needs to change."
The call Gallagher was angry about was a third-period goal from Flyers forward Tyson Foerster.
Foerster tucked a rebound past Canadiens netminder Jakub Dobes, but Montreal challenged the goal because Flyers forward Bobby Brink had skated into the crease and was behind Dobes when the puck went in the net.
However, after the review, the goal was upheld.
"(Brink) skates in the crease on his own, he gets in (Dobes') way," Gallagher said of Foerster's goal. "That's what they've been calling. That's the standard."
Gallagher is far from the only NHL player who has expressed his frustration with goaltender interference reviews.
On the same night, a number of Calgary Flames players were also unhappy with some video review decisions by the league.
The Flames had had two goals disallowed upon further review in their game against the Dallas Stars on Thursday.
"You got guys working their asses off out there and giving everything, and you're scoring goals, and you got someone behind a desk just making a judgment call that influences the game," Flames forward Blake Coleman told reporters afterward.
"I certainly feel we got robbed tonight," Flames forward Nazem Kadri added.
Goalie interference was a prime topic at the general managers' spring meeting last week, with agreement on situation room decisions in 52 of the 54 video clips shown and plenty of what senior executive vice-president of hockey operations Colin Campbell called “colourful discussions.”
Through the first 1,048 games this season, coaches challenged either a goal or no-goal call for goalie interference 105 times — the most since 2019-20, when getting it wrong first became a two-minute penalty — and 60 of them were successfully overturned, which is also the highest percentage under the current system.
But, clearly, some players are still hoping for more consistency on the goaltender interference reviews.
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