Tuesday, February 24, 2004
Hometown officiating
Ottawa lost to Montreal tonight 4-2 with Montreal native Stephane Auger assigned to the visitor end of the ice.
Montreal took the lead with 40 seconds left in the game when Steve Begin redirected a shot from the point while he was standing in the crease and in contact with Patrick Lalime. To make matters worse, there was another Hab in the crease when the goal was scored as well. The goal shouldn't have counted according to Rule 78 (g) of the NHL rulebook:
If an attacking player establishes a significant position within the goal crease, so as to obstruct the goalkeeper's vision and impair his ability to defend his goal, and a goal is scored, the goal will be disallowed.
(NOTE 6) For this purpose, a player "establishes a significant position within the crease" when, in the Referee's judgment, his body, or a substantial portion thereof, is within the goal crease for more than an instantaneous period of time.
Maybe Auger wasn't familiar with the rulebook or maybe he was too busy looking for his friends in the crowd when this took place.
Another horrible call in the third period was a delay of game penalty on Zdeno Chara. Chara was racing after Richard Zednik on a breakaway when he dove to try and pokecheck the puck away from Zednik. He misses but his momentum propels him into the net and he takes the net off its moorings. At this point, Lalime had already made the save on Zednik. However, Auger decided to call a penalty for something I had never seen called in all my years of watching hockey.
Montreal took the lead with 40 seconds left in the game when Steve Begin redirected a shot from the point while he was standing in the crease and in contact with Patrick Lalime. To make matters worse, there was another Hab in the crease when the goal was scored as well. The goal shouldn't have counted according to Rule 78 (g) of the NHL rulebook:
If an attacking player establishes a significant position within the goal crease, so as to obstruct the goalkeeper's vision and impair his ability to defend his goal, and a goal is scored, the goal will be disallowed.
(NOTE 6) For this purpose, a player "establishes a significant position within the crease" when, in the Referee's judgment, his body, or a substantial portion thereof, is within the goal crease for more than an instantaneous period of time.
Maybe Auger wasn't familiar with the rulebook or maybe he was too busy looking for his friends in the crowd when this took place.
Another horrible call in the third period was a delay of game penalty on Zdeno Chara. Chara was racing after Richard Zednik on a breakaway when he dove to try and pokecheck the puck away from Zednik. He misses but his momentum propels him into the net and he takes the net off its moorings. At this point, Lalime had already made the save on Zednik. However, Auger decided to call a penalty for something I had never seen called in all my years of watching hockey.
