Quote Originally Posted by RGM81 View Post
The only worse scenarios I can conjure for the off-ice officials to impact the game would be some sort of goalie interference and/or offside review that is just mind-blowing to all parties involved.

It has gotten so out of hand with these offside challenges. The obvious ones that they get wrong on the ice, yes, those have to be examined and overturned. But so many of these that we see are the borderline "was his skate totally over the blue line or is there still 1% there" and coaches are (because they're relying on their expert eyes in the sky, and because you never know whether the war room will flip a coin or not) just hoping the call goes their way. I know that the coaches can't call for a review in OT or the final minute of a period...but imagine that Game 7 OT scenario, home team busting down the ice, score a goal, it's pandemonium because there's fans in the stands and everybody is going nuts....and the war room calls it in. Dude's skate was over the line. No goal. Good luck with that.

Late 3rd period, Game 7, home team down by a goal. They score. Ref on the calls goalie interference, no goal. Coach's Challenge. It's extremely marginal and depending on the angle, even debatable that the player even touches the goalie. From where the goal was scored, where the "contact" took place, with the eye test none of it makes it seem like the player impacted the goalie's ability to make the save. Everybody watching the play has seen far worse contact allowed/marginal calls upheld for interference. Call is upheld, 2 minutes for delay of game to the home team. Visitors score to extend the lead to 2 goals and run out the clock from there.

Just last night we saw something pretty similar to that latter scenario happen, and it impacted the game. Vegas down 1-0 mid-third period. Goal. Alex Tuch was at the very top of the crease, trying to get out of it / out of the way but was blocked in by the Wild defender. EXTREMELY LIGHT brush against Talbot, who didn't react to it but due to the very tight screen / brush, didn't react in time and the puck goes in the net. Ref on the ice calls goalie interference. Vegas challenges. Call upheld. Delay of Game. Wild score on the power play. Instead of a 1-1 game, it's now 2-0 Wild with only 10 minutes left in the 3rd. Wild win the game and force Game 7.

I gave up trying to understand the goalie interference rule ever since this was allowed. As Brian Wilde famously stated, Carey Price was dragged to Moose Jaw. Goal allowed. Brendan Gallagher so much farts in the direction of a goalie and it's waved off. Again, the guys making the calls to challenge the play think they see something. Oh yeah, clearly bumped him, that shouldn't count. Yet how often do we see the war room come up with a reason that *that* bump was acceptable? It's a coin flip, and that's why you see the challenge almost any time that anything happens. They're on a wing and a prayer. If the call goes their way, whew they dodged a bullet. If not, it's time to get ready to eat a fine after the game is over.

Yeah, when you bring off ice officials into it - you open another can of worms.

I think review is great. I think the idea that the "human element" in officiating games is some kind of necessary, is utter garbage. The sooner we can get rid of referees and replace them with perfect robots that better.

If anyone asks "why would you want that?" it's because I don't want referees deciding the outcome of games. I want the game decided by the players that are playing it, and the closer we can have to the game being called perfectly - the closer we are to the players having 100% control of how the game is played.

Of course, that's not realistic in 2021, 20222, 2030, or the foreseeable future.

Off side should be easy, IMO. Was he over the line or not? If it looks like he was even 1% not over, and there was no call on the play, then he wasn't offside. It shouldn't take more than a moment to figure that out.

Goalie interference is a totally different beast, because it's so wide open to interpretation.... and it can come like most of the rest of the NHL's rules, and it depends who is calling the game, and what their mood is that day.

IMO, the best thing they could do with replay is add another ref to EVERY game, but have them sitting upstairs. Give them the ability to blow the whistle though, and shut down a play if they see something. When a goal is scored, they automatically review it. Take the coaches and their challenges right out of the equation.

Granted, the penalty for being wrong on a challenge is pretty steep, so I don't really think coaches are being to frivolous with their challenges.