The NHL has been buzzing over the last 48 hours after Columbus Blue Jackets head coach John Tortorella criticized the officiating crew's clock management late in Sunday's game against the Chicago Blackhawks. However, the league is siding with their officiating crew on this one.
According to the Associated Press, a league official called Tortorella's rant "unprofessional along with unacceptable." In addition, NHL director of hockey operations Colin Campbell defended the referee's decision not to put time back on the clock during the overtime period.
Campbell said that that clock issue was a "judgment call" by the referee, so NHL operations didn't need to get involved. He also added that the NHL is "dealing" with Tortorella's postgame rant.
Tortorella's stance was that the whistle was blown with 19.2 seconds remaining in overtime, but the referee chose not to reset the clock. The Blackhawks were called for a too many men on the ice penalty, which gave the Blue Jackets a brief power play before the game eventually went to a shootout.
here's your proof...it's so obvious that they mention it as it happens on the broadcast pic.twitter.com/GFxkua26Xs
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) December 30, 2019
In the video about, as pointed out by CBS Sports' Pete Blackburn, the broadcasters point out almost immediately after the whistle there should be time added to the game clock.
"Toronto doesn't step in, refs don't do their freaking job and now we lose a game, and we lose our goalie," Tortorella said in his postgame press conference on Sunday. "So the chain of events, if it was done right, we don't lose our goalie, we win the hockey game."
That extra time came into play at the end of the overtime period because Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski scored what would've been the game-winning goal with the clock winding down. After further review, it was determined that Werenski's shot crossed the goal line after time had expired. If that extra 1.1 seconds were put back on the clock from earlier in overtime, Columbus probably would've won the game.
Instead, the Blue Jackets fell to the Blackhawks 3-2 as the game went to a shooutout. To make this entire situation worse, Columbus goalie Joonas Korpisalo suffered an injury in the first round of the shootout and had to leave the game. On Monday, Tortorrella revaled that Korpisalo will be out for "weeks" due to a knee injury.
Tortorella did admit that he regrets publicly criticizing the referee.
