Knights on Ice — Anyone but the Sharks

“Anyone but the Sharks” is the answer to the question, “Now that the VGK have been eliminated, who are you rooting for to win the Stanley Cup?” in Las Vegas and among virtually 100% of the VGK fan base.

But the answer to this very same question among the referees in the NHL sure seems to be, “No one but the Sharks.”

We all know how Game 7 went down when the San Jose Sharks defeated the VGK in a call that even the allegedly fouled player, Joe Pavelski, claimed a few days after the game wasn’t a major penalty.

The NHL called Bill Foley and George McPhee the following day to apologize about the grievous error that the officials made, which caused the wrong team to advance to the next round. Yes, I know that the VGK were at one point leading the series three games to one and they were leading Game 7 by a score of 3-0 with just under 11 minutes to play. But even if just a minor penalty had been called, the Sharks would not have been on a 5-minute power play for a play that happens off of almost every face-off taken in the NHL. Maybe they score one PPG, but not four.

The referees influenced the results of that game — there’s no doubt about it. They didn’t initially even call a penalty on Cody Eakin. Not until they blew the play dead and had  “Old Man” Joe  screaming at them for a major penalty, along with the crowd at SAP Center in San Jose, did the four officials get together to call a penalty on something that they witnessed and didn’t consider an infraction when it happened.

The day after the Game 7 call on Cody Eakin, longtime NHL referee Kerry Fraser tweeted that he “felt sick in the pit of my stomach” when the penalty was called.

I thought that after this heartbreaking loss, I’d be done writing about hockey until October when the VGK start up their 2019-2020 season.

But then I ran into Donny, a poker dealer at the Flamingo and a big-time VGK fan who follows my blog. We always talk hockey, even when he’s dealing at my table. Last night, Donny was livid about how, once again, the Sharks were the beneficiaries of a blown call by the on-ice officials. He suggested I needed to vent for all VGK fans, including himself. Well, Donny, you convinced me.

The Stanley Cup has always been noted for being the hardest major-league championship to win, a battle among 16 teams who spill blood, loose teeth, break bones, and play through injuries that would make a baseball or basketball player sit out a month for the healing process. It now takes 16 wins in games that, for the most part, are played every other night in order to hoist the trophy over the winning team’s heads and have their names forever etched on the Stanley Cup, often referred to as the most cherished trophy in all of sports.

This year seems to be a different story. Too many games aren’t being decided by the players who are dripping blood. And these particular playoffs may forever be tainted if the San Jose Sharks are, God forbid, to win the 2018-2019 Stanley Cup.

We’re always told that the hockey gods make sure things don’t go unnoticed and if they do, they make sure they’re corrected. Well, I sure hope they’re paying attention, because the sanctity of the Stanley Cup is at risk here.

Last night in a pivotal Game 3 in the Western Conference Final with the series tied at 1-1 and in overtime, the four on-ice officials again didn’t see a blatant hand pass in the Sharks offensive zone that led to the winning goal by Erik Karlsson. Unlike in the VGK-Sharks series, they didn’t get together to confer. How do four officials positioned on different areas of the ice not see this hand pass?

The play isn’t reviewable; a hand pass can be called only by one of the four officials.

The game used to be overseen by one referee and two linesmen until that was changed for the 2000-2001 season. The NHL held the opinion that the game had become too fast for just one official to be the only eyes of the game for infractions. Yes, linesmen handle offsides and icing calls and can also call a hand-pass infraction that will stop play, but the referee is the only one who can call a penalty. Linesmen can assist a referee on major penalties after the play is stopped, so the second referee was put in place 18 years ago.

I find it hard to believe that all four officials missed the hand pass that gave the Sharks the OT goal and a win that wasn’t deserved. The Sharks also received a crucial call in their second-round series vs. the Colorado Avalanche when a goal was disallowed because of an offsides when there was video evidence that the player was clearly not offsides.

To add salt to the wound last night for the St. Louis Blues, Timo Meier is officially credited with an assist. So, the league “officially” records an assist for a hand pass that “officially” didn’t happen.

Making the loss all the more painful for the Blues was that they had twice rallied from two-goal deficits and held a one-goal lead with just over a minute left in regulation. However, the Sharks’ Logan Couture tied it at 4-4 with 61 seconds left, after San Jose pulled its goalie, Martin Jones, to put an extra skater on the ice.

The league confirmed the play could not be reviewed.

“Plays of this nature are not reviewable,” the NHL said in a statement, via ESPN. “A hand pass that goes into the net can be reviewed, but a hand pass between teammates cannot be reviewed.”

FanDuel doesn’t see it that way; the sports book is refunding all moneyline bets on the Blues from Game 3.

As a long-time hockey fan, I pray that the San Jose Sharks do not win the Stanley Cup this year. If they do, it will forever be a black eye for the NHL, which for over 100 years has had the most cherished trophy that players literally bled for.

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