Chicago’s Frank Nazar was sure he had scored in the shootout. His teammates though, thought otherwise.

“I get on the bench and go up to [Nick Foligno] and say, ‘I scored, right?'” Nazar explained after the game. “He goes, ‘No, nice try, bro.’ I’m like, ‘What? I scored! I know I scored!’ Everyone is like, ‘No, nice try, though. It’s all right.'”

Even the officials were fooled with neither referee – veterans Graham Skilliter and Francis Charron – signaling to indicate a goal.  

“The whole building didn’t think he scored,” Foligno added. “I was confused by it all. I’ve never seen it before in a shootout.”

Linesmen Steve Barton and Andrew Smith set up the for the penalty shot at center, putting the puck down on the dot and blowing the whistle — unaware that any review was taking place. 

The Canadiens’ Patrik Laine skated in for his attempt, which was stopped by goaltender Arvid Soderblom.  Only after Laine failed to convert did word come down from the NHL’s Situation Room that a goal had been scored on the Blackhawks’ prior attempt. 

 

 

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was in the Situation Room that night: 

The Situation Room spotter watching that game was the first to realize Frank Nazar scored. He let everyone else in the room know, and he’s on a headset to both the penalty box and the goal judge in the building. (The goal judge is the one with access to the arena horn.)

The on-ice officials didn’t see the puck lodged in the net and went to get a new one. I’m not sure what happened in the building, but Patrik Laine started his approach before everyone could be notified.

If I was a television viewer, a fan in the building or Brendan Gallagher of the Montreal Canadiens, I’d think the notification came late. But, having seen it in-person, the notification came on-time and maybe in-arena officials didn’t want to stop Laine after he’d begun his approach. (That’s me wondering, not anything stated here.)

It’s unfortunate. Potentially, Nazar scoring or not had no impact on Laine’s attempt. But, who knows, perhaps now down by one, Laine changes his approach. Perhaps Soderblom relaxes. There’s no way to know.  That’s precisely why the NHL doesn’t want play to resume while a goal is under review. 

Rule 37.2 applies to video review. Here are the relevant portions:

When the NHL Situation Room observes an incident involving a potential goal that was undetected by the On-Ice Officials, the Off-Ice Official will contact the Referee at the first stoppage of play and inform him that a review of the play is in progress. 

Any potential goal requiring video review must be reviewed prior to and/or during the next stoppage of play. No goal may be awarded (or disallowed) as a result of a Video Review once play has resumed.

Should the NHL Situation Room be able to determine that a goal has been scored through the use of video replay, and play on the ice has nonetheless continued, the NHL Situation Room shall instruct that the in-arena horn be sounded to stop play immediately, and the goal will be awarded. 

The challenge here is that the next shootout attempt really is ‘the resumption of play.’  By dropping the puck, the league dropped the ball, even if they made the right call on the goal itself.

The NHL needed to sound the horn – even if Laine was skating down the ice – as they would during regular game play, to let everyone know that the play was under review. 

Officially, the NHL’s explanation is that they did just that:

The Situation Room informed the Off-Ice Officials in the scorer’s box that the Frank Nazar’s shootout attempt entered the net in a legal fashion immediately following the play and prior to Patrik Laine’s shootout attempt.

The message just never made it to the ice.