A blatant crosscheck ignored in overtime cost the Hurricanes a point. Officials missed a clear call, impacting the game's outcome and fueling frustration.
Being an NHL official is hard.
The game moves at a million miles an hour and you're asked to make split-second judgment calls, a lot of the time, in a chaotic sea of sticks and bodies.
You can't ask a referee to be perfect, but they have to be able to make the easy calls, and Monday night, they missed one of the clearest ones in years.
After the Carolina Hurricanes rallied back from a 3-0 deficit to force overtime, scoring three goals all in the third period, they were robbed of a chance for two points, as Red Wings center Andrew Copp crosschecked Shayne Gostisbehere from behind, knocking the Carolina blueliner over and opening up a lane directly in front of the Hurricanes net, where he redirected in the game-winning goal.
I can understand a missed call here or there in the heat of a game, but when one is as blatant as that one was, it leaves you scratching your head at how it's even possible to miss it.
It wasn't some play along the boards where 11 guys are flying by you at 20+ miles per hour. It was a slow-developing play, which was clearly visible with no obstructions of the view whatsoever, especially by official Chris Schlenker, who was right there in the cornering watching everything unfold.
"I don't just fall on my own there," Gostisbehere said post-game. "I mean, it's kind of tough. Maybe it happened too fast for the ref to see, but he's wide open for a reason."
One of the easiest and most unarguable calls in the world to make, yet no whistle was heard and no penalty was called.
Well, other than the two 10-minute misconducts the officials handed out to Gostisbehere and Sebastian Aho, who were justifiably heated over the non-call.
And that to me is even more embarrassing than the blown call.
Because if you make a mistake as bad as that one was and which cost a team a win, take it on the chin. Don't assess misconducts on the guys you just screwed.
"Tough way to end the game," said Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour. "We all saw what happened. It is what it is. Hopefully that evens out somewhere down the line."
I get that some fans wanted Brind'Amour to go scorched Earth on the officiating, but his approach was the best one to take.
Because why draw heat in a pointless regular season game in the middle of January?
At the end of the day, the game's over. Nothing he says will change the result, so save the fire for when things matter.
And this is not unique situation to Carolina either and nobody should be implying as much. The officials aren't out to get the Canes, I mean come on, they got five power plays, including a 5-on-3 late in the game, and they also didn't just hand Detroit a win because it was a banner-night for Sergei Fedorov.
Fans of every single team in the history of sports have claimed that the officials are out to get them, but this was simply just a scenario where the refs elected not to make a call.
It was just a judgment call, and unfortunately for the Hurricanes, a rather poor one.
Every team has had calls not go their way and I can guarantee you that you can find fans complaining about similar situations tomorrow and the next day and the day after that and so on and so forth.
That's just the reality of officiating, especially in the NHL.
It's a fact in this league that officials call a lot of the game based on feel and previous calls will influence the next.
I mean, Tim Peel was caught on a hot mic admitting it a few years back.
So while the Canes were screwed today, it's a situation many teams have found themselves in and it will just continue on because nothing really changes in this league.
Officials aren't made available to the media and would you really expect the NHL head office to do anything ever?
So all Carolina can do is move on, get ready for that next game tomorrow night and hope they don't be screwed again.
Welcome to the NHL.
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