Official Error

Kuklas Korner:

When San Jose scored at the 4:22 mark with Joe Pavelski redirecting a shot from Marleau at close range, play should have returned to 4-on-4, with Malhotra and Clowe remaining the box for another 17 seconds.

Instead, officials pulled Malhotra out of the box, keeping Clowe in the box for 17 seconds and Klesla for 43 seconds.

When this happened, we all watched the confusion on the ice, and I said at the time they needed to remove Klesla, since you don’t break up the coincidental minors. Then they pulled out Malhotra, and my only response was that I was wrong (again), and obviously an idiot.

Well, guess not. not that I feel better for that.

Frankly? This is a rare and somewhat funky situation, but it’s the kind of situation I expect should cause no — zero, none — confusion in the minds of the referees. that they got it wrong is incomprehensible to me. We’re not talking about “well, the puck split in half, and half of the puck went in the net, is it a goal?” type problems, this is, to me, a purely straightforward rulebook interpretation — and they botched it.

For all I defend referees for having to make judgement calls in the heat of action, this was during a stoppage, with the ability to consult with each other, the linesmen, the timekeeper and off-ice staff, and call up to video and have them call the war room in toronto if they needed to. And yet — they got it backwards.

How do you defend that? You don’t. I’m not. It’s insane that four trained professionals in stripes, not one of them got the rule right.

Especiallly since — and it’s not my job to memorize the rulebook and case book — I did. but I got overruled.

One can only wonder what Walkom said to his guys in the conference calls I know the officiating staff is having with their zebras. to say I’d rather be a goalie playing for Keenan than these referees today is an understatement. And they deserve all of the criticism. This is the kind of thing you simply have no justification for getting wrong.

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