Let’s talk a bit about everyone’s favorite topic… Officiating. It’s always a bit of a hot topic with hockey fans and after last night, it certainly was with both Jets and Wild fans.

In last night’s game against the Minnesota Wild, the Winnipeg Jets got on the board early with a goal from Tyler Myers less than two minutes into the game..

Or so they thought…

What is truly funny about this is they reviewed the play it would seem to make sure it wasn’t a reviewable play.

The night only got worse for the men in stripes as a handful of questionable calls were made.

We like to take referees to task early and often – “ref, you suck” is not only a common refrain in Winnipeg, but pretty much anywhere sports is happening – but when you consider the speed of which the game is played at, especially at the professional level, that the NHL expects it’s on-ice officials to make the correct calls every time is absurdly crazy. Fans and media will get into debates over calls made and penalties handed out well after a play has happened and replays have been shown a dozen times since, yet we expect NHL referees to get these calls right within seconds of a play happening and if they don’t, man will they ever hear about it!

With that in mind, it’s almost borderline ridiculous that a league like the Canadian Football League – which is maybe even more infamous for having less than ideal officiating year in and year out – has figured out that it’s probably a good idea to review the most important part of it’s games: each and every scoring play, yet the National Hockey League can’t figure that out themselves.

But to get back to the point of the Myers’ goal that wasn’t, it wasn’t reviewed because the play was ruled dead by the official and wasn’t available to be challenged by Paul Maurice because the NHL has decided judgment calls such as hand passes or high sticks are not reviewable, while other judgment calls like offsides are.

Everyone has an opinion on how to make the game better and how to make it so that NHL officials can do the best job possible. Would you make all scoring plays reviewable? Would you get rid of replay altogether? Some people have suggested getting rid of offsides or icings, some have thought that the two line pass should be brought back, some have said that the goalie trapezoid needs to go away.

Let us know on our Twitter feed, or in the comments below!

 

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