I have a great deal of respect for NHL officials. Of all the major professional sports, hockey is surely one of the toughest to call. The rules are replete with grey areas, the standards they’re expected to apply change depending quite literally on which day it is, and the skill and conditioning necessary to keep up with NHL pace make the officials legitimate athletes in their own right. I’d like to see the league give them some tools to do their job more effectively.

If you missed it, there was a blown call that led to a goal in the NHL today. My wife thinks this play is offside, and she detests hockey and hasn’t seen the video yet. With the Colorado Avalanche already up 2-1 in the second period, PA Parenteau fired a stretch pass from his own zone, attempting to hit Matt Duchene who had snuck behind the Nashville defence. The puck appears to carom off of either Scott Hannan or Craig Smith, putting Duchene so far offside that a junior hockey linesman in Kitimat reflexively blew his whistle. Unfortunately for the Preds, NHL linesman Derek Amell didn’t. The result is a bizarre, slow-motion breakaway where even Duchene looks like he’s waiting for the whistle until he fires it past the keeper.

Mistakes happen, even mistakes as egregious as this one, but they should not be allowed to stand. A football-style challenge system would have negated Duchene’s goal so fast that the homer Colorado play-by-play guy would still be in the middle of his awful “WHAT A MOVE” call when the overruling was announced. (Seriously, what was he thinking? It would be ok if there had actually been, you know, a good move, but selling a call like that when you have to know the goal was illegitimate and the goalie wasn’t trying is just terrible.)

Canucks fans will remember another recent decision which, while correct by the letter of the law, still affected a game negatively for no reason. The NHL rulebook states that any incidental contact with goaltenders prior to the puck crossing the goal line is enough for a goal to be waved off by the referee. This is an attempt by the NHL to make the referees’ job less difficult. It has the unintended consequence of removing common sense from the equation. Mason Raymond was on the wrong end of such a decision on Friday, when he appeared to open the scoring in the Canucks tilt against Dallas, but bumped Stars keeper Richard Bachman while the puck was between the goalie and the goal line. Replays showed that there was no reasonable chance for Bachman to stop the puck from going in, bump notwithstanding. The goal was nevertheless waved off, and the Stars would go on to  open the scoring only 11 seconds later.

Again, a challenge system would be useful here. Alternatively, the NHL could look to Rugby League for a solution. There, a dedicated replay official watches the game and can be called on by radio from the field. This is similar to what the NHL does already, but Rugby differs in that it allows the off-field official to rule on violations the referee may have missed leading up to a try. This includes offsides. The NHL has such a system in place already, with their Toronto war-room. All that’s needed is to give them the leeway to review more than the actual shot on goal.

Have an idea for fixing instant replay in the NHL? Think it should stay the same? Leave your opinions in the comments!