The farce that is goaltender interference continued again tonight. No one, be it goalie, player, coach, GM, media, fan or anyone else not mentioned has any idea what will be called a goal or not based on the definition established by the league. A coin flip would have better odds of success than trying to systematically figure out what is and isn't based on how things have played out.
Of utmost concern in this issue is that the interpretation and further the application of goaltender interference is applied individually by the 34 different referees of the NHL. Not sure which suit thought this to be a good idea, but it has been nothing but an abject failure. Instead of getting some standard to be applied across every game, each referee applies his own variation of what will and won't be enough to allow or disallow a goal. What's worse, is that bar doesn't even seem to be consistent within the same referee, swinging like a pendulum seeking it's resting centre.
This was an obvious problem doomed to be created from the start. League brass has mentioned that giving the on-ice official final verdict allows them to weigh the emotion and flow of the game into the decision. Why would either of those things matter? Oh, this was a close game, and some calls have possibly gone the other team’s way, so we’ll give this team a call in their favour. Ludicrous.
From the beginning, this should have been assigned to The Situation Room. They get to make the call on whether or not the puck crossed the line, so they should have final say on what is and isn't goaltender interference. It would promote a much greater level of consistency, but it still, to a large degree, leaves out the accountability.
Which is where I pop in, with a very simple solution. One person, sitting in The Situation Room, makes all the goalie interference challenge calls. By next day, a statement is released explaining why. We don't need full video breakdown like is released for supplemental discipline, as any appeal process is long over by next day. That would bring the pendulum of the league to its centre, and right would be restored, at least as much as possible.
What is interesting to note though, is if all of these are goaltender interference, where’s the accompanying penalty? Sure, some of them may be incidental and not warrant a penalty, but many of them would. It seems like an oversight, but the NHL is renowned for those. The goaltender interference challenge is supposed to be applied when it prevents a goalie from making a save. On many of these, the action of the offender wasn't what was preventing the save. It has become the bargain trade of possibly losing your timeout for a get out of jail free card, all while still getting to effectively use your timeout at that moment.
And then people wonder why scoring is down.
