The Detroit Red Wings and Boston Bruins entered Saturday facing huge games in their quest to secure a playoff spot. Both teams scored goals early in their games, and both were subject to replay review due to the coach's challenge system.
Only one of them ended up counting, and the one that did could be seen as pretty controversial.
First, the Red Wings thought they had taken an early 1-0 lead on the New York Rangers just two minutes into their game when Joakim Andersson beat Antti Raanta. The Rangers immediately decided to use their coach's challenge for an offside play because of this.
Looks onside, right? Well, it's not. Because even though Andersson's right foot is behind the blue line as the puck enters the zone, his skate is off the ice. That means that it is, by rule, an offside play. It was correctly overturned.
While that was happening in New York, David Pastrnak was giving the Bruins a 1-0 lead over the Senators in Boston on another goal that ended up getting challenged. While the Andersson goal appeared at first glance to be onside but wasn't, the Pastrnak goal was the exact opposite. And that one ended up counting.
As Pastrnak enters the offensive zone, he knocks the puck out of mid-air just as they reach the blue line and skates in alone to beat Andrew Hammond to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead.
The camera angle that produces the most controversial image because it appears to show the blur that is Pastrnak across the blue line before the puck. Pretty clearly offside, right?
Well, no. The problem is the puck is in mid-air and the camera isn't lined up looking straight down the blue line so it produces an inconclusive image, which is exactly what the referees ended up ruling. That means the goal stands.
When the playoffs begin the NHL will have cameras positioned on the blue line to hopefully eliminate these sorts of controversial calls, but it doesn't do anybody any good when these calls are determining who actually gets in to the playoffs.
