NHL shouldn't get a pass for this hand pass
Why in the world are some officials’ calls subject to review, while others are not?
Surely you remember the last NFC championship game…
And that pass interference call?
Or rather, the lack of one?
In case you’ve forgotten some of the particulars, the Saints were driving late in the game, and a first down would have put them in easy field goal range.
The Rams were down to one timeout, so New Orleans could have run the clock to just about nothing before taking their easy three points and heading off for a date with the New England Patriots.
But somehow, all seven officials missed a blatant case of pass interference against the Rams’ Nickell Robey-Coleman, who raced across the field and absolutely blasted a wide-open Tommylee Lewis well before a throw from Drew Brees arrived.
The NFL replay official upstairs in the press box saw it, but…
Pass interference was not a reviewable call under the rule structure at that time.
Almost certainly, the wrong team went to the Super Bowl.
THE NFL is now under tremendous public pressure to fix the problem, and it shouldn’t be long before every play is reviewable.
Coaches will be allowed to challenge two calls per game, as they do now, but I personally would add that if they’re wrong, the team should be penalized 15 yards (in addition to losing a timeout, as they do now).
No, it won’t slow down the game.
But it WILL ensure that there isn’t a huge injustice done, simply on a technicality.
Now lo and behold, it turns out the National Hockey League has the same problem — for which I would suggest the identical remedy.
On Thursday night, San Jose defeated St. Louis 5-4 in overtime to take a 2-1 lead in the teams’ best-of-7 series.
They are in the Western Conference Finals, with the winner advancing to play for the Stanley Cup.
In other words, that result was a damn big deal.
The Blues are still in the series, but their path has gotten considerably tougher.
Here’s the thing…
The Sharks’ winning goal, scored by Erik Karlsson after a nice feed from Gustav Nyquist, would have been disallowed if there had been replays permitted on every type of call.
See, the reason Nyquist received the puck cleanly and was able to tee up Karlsson for the winner was that San Jose’s Timo Meier — while falling to his knees on the ice — got his hand to the puck and kind of shoveled it right across the slot.
In case you don’t know hockey rules, it’s legal to stop the puck with your glove, but you can’t then advance it or do anything that gives your team an advantage.
If that happens, there should be an immediate whistle and a call for “hand pass.”
JUST LIKE with the Rams-Saints game, pretty much everyone watching (and playing) knew there was a violation.
That is…
Everyone except the four officials on the ice, who each were blocked out in what, to be fair, was a lightning-fast moment.
Also like the NFL, there is a replay system during which league administrators in Toronto view plays from every conceivable angle and pass on their judgment to the lead referee at the game site.
If a coach challenges a play and is wrong, his team incurs a two-minute penalty.
But here comes déjà vu…
A hand pass isn’t a reviewable call, so neither the Blues nor the NHL official upstairs could do a thing about it.
Now seriously, isn’t all this just a bit ridiculous?
With all the technology now available and a zillion different camera angles, why choose some plays as reviewable and others not?
The various leagues claim it will slow down the game (very much a red herring), but even if one extra stoppage adds a minute or two, surely it’s more important to get a critical call correct.
It simply doesn’t make sense to decide that some plays are reviewable and some are not.
Baseball and basketball are the same, by the way, and we’ve seen the same mess in those sports.
This calls for the easiest fix imaginable.
Make all calls subject to replay.
It’s time to do it.
Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns for The Press appear on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Steve also contributes the “Zags Tracker” package on Gonzaga basketball once monthly during the offseason.
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