Coming out of the Board of Governors’ meetings, the NHL decided that the Situation Room would be able to signal the on-ice crew if a confirmed goal was missed on the ice. Previously, teams needed to wait for the next stoppage before a review could be initiated. This had the potential to lead to long stretches of ‘lost time’ where any subsequent goals would be called back (but penalties would stand).
On Saturday night, the Situation Room tested out this new approach.
Referee Kyle Rehman calls the Situation Room
New York Rangers’ forward Jesper Fast one-timed a Kevin Hayes pass from behind the net. Sabres goaltender Jhonas Enroth kicked it out with a quick left pad save. It was a great save, but it happened behind the goal line.
Referee Kyle Rehman understandably missed it. The puck barely crossed the line, and it did so with such velocity that it was back out a split-second later. Fast raised his stick and pointed, but the teams played on.
Then, with 4:33 to play in the period, the horn sounded.
The game clock was rolled back to the 5:00 mark, the time of Fast’s goal.
Here’s the official ruling from the NHL:
At 15:27 of the second period in the Buffalo Sabres/New York Rangers game, the Situation Room initiated a video review to further examine Jesper Fast’s shot at 15:00.
Video review determined that the puck crossed the Sabres goal line.
According to Rule 38.6 “In the event that a video replay shows a goal was scored prior to the play being stopped, the Video Goal Judge will inform the Game Timekeeper and Official Scorer of the time and the amount of playing time left to be reset on the game clock and penalty time clocks (if applicable).” Therefore the game clock is reset to show 5:00 (15:00 elapsed time) and good goal New York Rangers.
