Martin Hanzal's Goal (Redwing77)

Ok, here's another one for you hockey pundits.

I saw this goal live (on TV) and I was completely blown away with the call. So were the fans. So was the commentators... and so was LA GM Dean Lombardi, who blasted NHL Review official Mike Murphy. And Lombardi is paying $50,000 for doing so.

My Opinion

This is a NO GOAL. Every angle has the puck being hit when it was, at best, even with the crossbar. I can't find an angle where his stick wasn't above the crossbar until after the puck was headed to the net. And, no, I'm not trying to defend LA Kings defenseman and former UND stud Matt Greene (#2 pictured).

As for Lombardi, his comments were ridiculous! He stated, in effect, that the reason why Toronto (and Mike Murphy) didn't overrule the on ice officials was because Lombardi got the GM position instead of Murphy! That's dumb. However, complaining because it was a bad call was dumb, but justified. In other words, had Lombardi come out and said that Toronto made a bad call, and gotten fined for saying so, I'd be defending Lombardi. Saying what he said was just stupid.

The NHL, however, responded by saying, in effect, that the job of Toronto isn't to overrule the officials, but to get the call right. Well, that's nice, but I've never seen the on ice official get overruled to get the call wrong. The instant replay system is designed to ensure that, true enough, the correct call is made, but also to ensure that the officials are calling the reviewed play correctly. Whether or not the on ice official is overruled is irrelevant. If overruling the officials on every single replay in a game results in the right calls being made, then who the hell cares about the on ice officials?