Henrik Zetterberg and Daniel Cleary both got nailed in overtime by the referees for goaltender interference. Both had the puck and were going to the net hard, making significant contact with Marc-Andre Fleury.
Mike Babcock was a little bit pissed off in an interview about it. His comments were fairly mild saying that he'd never seen anything like that.
I hate to break it to you Mike but those were penalties.
Even though I am an on-ice official, I am not a big fan of the game called by NHL officials but they got those two calls right.
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I realize people will disagree because they had the puck and were just going to the net. The thing is goaltender interference is a fairly cut and dry penalty, or at least it should be. You make contact with the goaltender you sit. Bottom line.
Obviously the contact has to be significant enough to affect the goaltender, but if it is the player sits.
Part of his motivation was to make a point about Michel Therrien but Babcock was genuinely upset about the penalties and he is in the wrong.
The officiating hasn't been great throughout the playoffs but I thought they called a pretty good game last night including the calls on Zetterberg and Cleary.
I'm sure there are plenty who disagree, but having seen the plays on TV and replayed them dozens of times I have to say that I would have made the same calls and I still think they are the right ones.
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2 months ago
Please take off the Penguin glasses before posts like this. These plays happen hundreds of times in the regular season and playoffs, and NEVER has there been calls like the two in game 5. I have been watching hockey for 40 years and have never seen anything like it.
from 2 months ago
I keep hearing how bad the calls are but why are they not Goaltender Interference Penalties. I have yet to hear a good argument why they are not Interference. Holmstrom has been ripped off a couple of times on very weak calls. But these were legitimate penalties. Why do you say they are not interference?
2 months ago
Please Explain to me why those are not Goaltender Interfeence
2 months ago
Whatever the rule books says, the fact of the matter is 99 times out of a hundred those plays are not called penalties during the regular season much less are they called penalties in the SCP. So really the problem is not in the letter of the law, but in the fact that it is highly suspicious that a call that is rarely made in any game, gets called twice in OT of the SCP when we are supposed to let the players decide the game.
Just imagine if in the upcoming NBA Finals the bellering and whining that would happen if the officials suddenly started to call traveling and palming the ball on the dribble in the second and third overtime of game five.....yeah....same deal. Those are two infractions that are written in the rulebook, but most often are never called.
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