Was the right call made on Ryan Poehling goal?
No Stanley Cup playoffs would be complete without a bizarre officiating controversy. The NHL delivered once again on Sunday night, as Ryan Poehling’s overtime goal gave the Anaheim Ducks a 4-3 win against the Edmonton Oilers and a 3-1 stranglehold on the series. The question is, howevever, did the puck actually, fully cross the goal line? Poehling’s centering pass deflected off Edmonton defenseman Darnell Nurse’s skate and squeezed through the five hole of goaltender Tristan Jarry. The puck seemingly crossed the goal line, but Jarry’s skate blade partially covered the puck from the overhead camera angle, making it impossible to completely see the puck across the line.
Did the puck fully cross the line?? 🎥: Sportsnet
The “did it or didn’t it” aspect of the play wasn’t the only odd thing about it. After the puck apparently went in, Poehling and the Ducks were celebrating, but the officials made no call for some time. They eventually announced that it had been ruled a goal on the ice, and after a video review, announced that the call on the ice had been confirmed. Anaheim wins.
On Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton were joined by The Sheet‘s Jeff Marek to discuss the wild scene in Anaheim on Sunday night.
Jeff Marek: The way that we got to the right call was really awkward, and does raise a lot of questions. Initially as we’re all watching this thing go through, I think we’re all saying “If you’re an Oiler fan, you’re hating on this,” for all the reasons that you guys already outlined. How can you make the call that that thing was ruled a goal when no one was in position to see it? Ultimately, the situation room did say they had evidence to show that this was a goal. So whether it was called a goal on the ice or not a goal on the ice, the situation room was going to “get the call right.”
I’ll tell you what I’m curious about here. I mentioned this to Jason Gregor on The DFO Rundown that we recorded last night. I want to know how they arrived at the initial call. What I want to hear is, and we will never get this. What I’m going to ask for, we will not get. I want to hear the conversation the four officials had by the penalty box. What was discussed there? How did they discuss getting there? To me, there’s candy in there. What was the conversation? Because I don’t know how anyone saw that initially.
You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Monday’s episode here…