Goal or No Goal

I was planning on taking this article in a completely different direction.  Then I thought about the title of this page.  The design is to look at hockey with a neutral and unbiased tone.  If something is controversial let's talk about it.  So I'll put my original idea on the back burner and look at game 3 of Tampa vs. Montreal.

The score is tied at one with less than five minutes to play in the second period.  Tampa is already down 2-0 in the series losing both games at home.  Reeling with injuries to key players and questionable goaltending, Tampa now has to win in one of the toughest environments in the game.  To make matters worse, Montreal scored 11 seconds into the game, but Tampa has quieted the the offense to this point.

THE DILEMMA




The call on the ice from Francis Charron was no goal (link might still go to a rather amusing Wikipedia article).  Or eventually was no goal once he thought about it.  Charron had about five seconds to make a decision.  We have more.

Let's start from the beginning.  Alex Killorn takes a cross ice path on the left wing side driving hard to the net.  He looks like he wants to pull it to the backhand but collides with Montreal forward David Desharnais and the left pad/toe of goalie Carey Price.  The resulting collision sends Killorn into the Montreal net.  Nothing wrong with this so far.

P.K. Subban baseball swings the puck out of mid air above the net and stumbles over Killorn who is still fully inside the Montreal net.  The puck goes back to the point before being passed back across ice.  At this point Subban, looking to make a defensive play moves out towards the play.  Price meanwhile skates back across his crease after the original collision took him away from the net.  Now the fun part.

Since Subban moves out, Killorn has an opportunity to get himself out of the net.  He does.  It also coincides with Price following the play to the left. Price initiates the contact while also falling to his knees taking himself further away from the play when the puck returns back to the middle of the ice.  Ryan Callahan spins, shoots and watches the puck deflect into the net.  After some hesitation Charron waves off the goal.

It's quite clear the announcers do not agree with the call.  On this site we can appreciate that because this is the from the CBC.  As the only Canadian team in the playoffs, they have some rooting interest.  Lightning coach Jon Cooper also disagreed calling it a "fuckin bullshit call" and followed it with "rookie call."

The question is was it the correct call.  I could only naturally wonder if a guy from Quebec, officiating his second playoff game, in front of home town fans might have given Montreal the extra benefit of the doubt.  These guys are professionals.  I'd surely hope and assume that things like that are not taken into consideration.  So let's put aside the connection between a French-Canadian official and a French-Canadian team.

Francis Charron, with interpretation of the rule, felt there was enough contact to wave the goal off.  That's his decision.  Like many aspects of the game this decision was made solely based on an opinion.  It's hard to fault a guy for the way he saw something.  When you dissect the play my feel was contact was minimal, initiated and sold by the goalie and did not directly result in or contribute to the goal.

Had the goal counted Tampa would have went up 2-1.  There is no telling what would have happened the rest of the way.  I also can't tell you if Tampa was deflated after the no goal or more determined to score.  In light of all the other events I'd assume it was probably the former.  One play doesn't make a series.  Montreal is playing far better hockey.

This however should have been a goal.