Sportsattitude

Stanley Cup Playoffs…Game 2…Philadelphia at the Mellon Arena (i.e. The Igloo) to face Pittsburgh… already down 1-0 in the series…and the game…3:19 left in the first period…Flyers’ goalie Marty Biron covers up a puck in the vicinity of the goal line…the whistle blows…and an official review is ordered.

Now, in the NHL…an official review gets “beamed” all the way back to Global HQ in Toronto…which in itself is a fascinating thing.  Think about a Super Bowl or an NFL playoff game being “called” from New York City?  Anyway, that’s how the National Hockey League has it set up, with a “war room” in Canada reviewing various replay angles to guide officials on the ice in deciding the outcome of situations that require such drilled-down attention.

But, one of the huge problems I have with replay review in the NHL…in all sports for that matter…is the fact common sense is not allowed to prevail.  And the more I see…the more I wonder if baseball isn’t best served by completely staying out of the “game replay game.”

In this instance, the people “behind the Oz curtain” in Toronto determined there was no angle Versus could show them that definitively overturned the call of the ice-bound officials the puck did not cross the goal line.  They denied the Penguins a goal they surely earned had common sense been allowed as part of the video interpretation. 

It’s not just what you see, it’s what you know had to have happened.

Common sense is simply not allowed when these video replays are used, and yet you find yourself screaming at the television asking those in charge, “are you nuts?”  In the play in question, admittedly there was no available angle  that showed any “white space” between the puck and the goal line.  That being said, when viewing one great, specific shot of the puck accelerating towards the back of the goal, and seeing when Biron’s glove smothered and stopped it, even a legally blind individual would have ruled that puck a goal.  When Biron’s ample mitt finally stopped the movement of the puck, it had to have been completely past the line.  There was no other way to call it.

You couldn’t make the statement there was no visual proof to overturn the call on the ice because common sense told you there was no way the puck could not have been across the line, and the only reason you didn’t actually see that was because of Biron’s giant glove.  It was a goal.  Everyone knew it.  And yet, it didn’t count.

No matter, because the Penguins once more took advantage of the Flyers’ inability to both escape penalties and cover Pitt’s furious power play offense, winning Game 2 by a 4-2 count.  Of course, part of the reason for the Fly-boys rough go on defense in both these first two games in the Steel City, especially against the power play, was due to the fact they keep coming up with ways to shockingly lose defensemen…just before Game 1, it was superstar Kimmo Timonen who was ruled out with a blood clot in his ankle from the prior series…moments into Game 2, top penalty killer Braydon Coburn took a deflected slapshot between his eye and nose that may still be bleeding…50 stitches and counting.  Always odd seeing arena workers shoveling blood off the ice.

But, the real story from last night was once more seeing how replay doesn’t get it done.  Five minutes of staring at the obvious only to rule otherwise.  You see it in the NFL all the time, and to some extent in both college basketball and the NBA…I mentioned the other day one of the fascinating things about basketball is how timing errors are rarely brought up throughout entire games but inside that last minute, the officials are more than happy to micro-manage and actually wind up adding on “overtime” with all the freeze-frame, CSI-like analysis they do of the clock. 

Folks here in Philly are having fun seeing the Flyers playing deep into May after being the worst team in hockey a year ago, but you’d like to lose with your best players competing and these two injuries on defense are going to likely be too much to overcome.  Still, the Flyers were kept in last night’s game by replay once again being interpreted incorrectly.  If common sense isn’t allowed as to when to legitimately stop play to review situations in the first place and then, once a review is agreed upon you don’t use common sense to rule on what you see, why bother?