The NHL's Refereeing Issue Rears Its Ugly Head Once Again As Blues Get Fucked Over In OT
Hand Pass – A player shall be permitted to stop or “bat” a puck in the air with his open hand, or push it along the ice with his hand, and the play shall not be stopped unless, in the opinion of the on-ice officials, he has directed the puck to a teammate, or has allowed his team to gain an advantage, and subsequently possession and control of the puck is obtained by a player of the offending team, either directly or deflected off any player or official.
Yuck. Like, how the hell does that happen? How does a blatant hand pass in front of the net like that go unnoticed/not whistled dead? And worse, it was allowed to stand because goals as the result of hand passes can’t be reviewed.
Now the Blues are down in the series to San Jose 2 games to 1 and face a big uphill climb thanks to a brutally missed infraction. Brayden Schenn and Pat Maroon looked like they were gonna go all Tim McCracken on the refs as they skated off the ice and you can’t blame them one bit.
Look, I don’t like to do this. As I said on today’s Spittin’ Chiclets, the refs and linesmen are generally good dudes who do a hard, essential, thankless job. It’s only gotten tougher since HDTV and DVRs came along and now every fan can Zapruder every call. And I know mistakes are going to happen when there’s a human element involved.


Not that the reffing the last few post-seasons has been ideal but the officiating this playoffs has been pretty awful. I’m not just talking the inconsistency or the calling of seemingly every ticky-tack penalty some games. It’s the huge, series-altering-thus-franchise-altering whistles that will echo throughout hockey eternity.
The Vegas Golden Knights got so screwed in the First Round, I’m surprised Bugsy Siegel’s ancestors didn’t pay a little visit to the NHL’s HQ. And league apologies mean jack shit to the guy currently in the Caribbean tying one on instead of getting ready for the biggest game of his career. Now the Blues are the latest team that can only wonder ‘what if?’ (or more like ‘what the fuck?’) because of a brutal call.
It shouldn’t be this way.
So what’s the answer? For starters, have every OT goal reviewed to make sure it’s legit similar to what the NFL does (you know things are bad when we’re leaning on the NFL for officiating advice). That seems like a no-brainer. At least it would avoid disasters like we saw last night.
Also, the NHL should make sure they’re bringing along the best of the best to officiate their games. I spoke to somebody a few years ago who strongly hinted that politics can come into play when it comes to bringing in new refs. I don’t know how valid his claim is or not but it wouldn’t surprise me given how much of the NHL is political and how many people get jobs because of who they know. Why would choosing refs be any different? But if there’s ever a job where the best qualified candidate should be taken, it’s a refereeing gig.
Regardless, the NHL has a refereeing problem and it needs fixin’.
(In the interest of full disclosure and to show I have both dogs in the fight…)