Friday night, the Toronto Maple Leafs pushed the Boston Bruins to the brink of elimination with a 2-1 win at TD North Garden. If you’re a Bruins fan, this game left you with a bad taste in your mouth. It was another game where the on-ice officials blew obvious goalie interference call. If you’re a Leafs fan, or a Bruins hater, you’re not feeling a lot of empathy towards the Bruins misfortune.
At the 11:33 mark of the third period Leafs forward Auston Mathews scored the game’s first goal. On the play, the video replay shows that Leafs forward Zach Hyman made significant contact with Bruins Tuukka Rask. After a lengthy review, the on-ice officials ruled it was a good goal. (You can watch the game highlights here.)
Yesterday, Jake Muzzin became a dad.
Today, Jake Muzzin assisted on a huge Leafs goal to break the 0-0 deadlock.
Not a bad 24 hours, eh Pops? pic.twitter.com/DjtRC3bR6y
— Hockey Night in Canada (@hockeynight) April 20, 2019
Again, if you’re part of Leafs nation, you have no problem with the call. That being said, I think this is the symptom of a bigger problem. There’s one set of rules during the regular season another set of rules during the Stanley Cup Playoffs. There’s no reason this goal should’ve counted. If you watch the video, you will see that Hyman’s contact with Rask interfered with his ability to make a save on Matthew’s shot. Seems kind of cut and dried, but apparently, it’s not.
After the game, Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy disagreed with the call on the ice.
“Clearly interferes with Tuukka,” Cassidy said. “It goes to Toronto, and they have to make a decision. I just hope they don’t predict whether they thought the goalie could make the save, get across on time. It’s either interference, or it’s not.”
Coach Cassidy continued.
“From my viewpoint, it certainly looked like goaltender interference,” Cassidy said. “The call didn’t go our way. It’s 1-0 with eight minutes to go. We had time to get ourselves back in the game and regroup, and unfortunately we weren’t able to do that.”
Controversial goal or not, the Bruins have to play better in game six if they want to extend this series. Last night, I thought the Bruins were a step slow and lost a lot of the 50/50 battles.
Check out what an NHL goalie Cam Talbot had to say about the blown call.
Once again the NHL goalie interference review is flawed. Someone that’s played the game in the blue paint should be in the situation room. Games are being lost in the playoffs and it’s not right. #inconsistent https://t.co/1DmPfnZC9K
— Cam Talbot (@ctalbot33) April 20, 2019
You can read the ruling from the NHL’s Situation Room. According to NHL Rule 78.7, “If a review is not conclusive and/or there is any doubt whatsoever as to whether the call on the ice was correct, the original call on the ice will be confirmed.” Yeah, that’s hotel sierra.
Unbelievable that the @NHL situation room can’t make a decision on this. All the experts seem to think it’s interference. Do you not have a clear definition of the rule or precedent for previous decisions? #makeadecision pic.twitter.com/Sz5Jh0SHNg
— Derek Damery (@Derek_Damery) April 20, 2019
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