Coach’s challenge chaos in Blues’ Game 2 loss to Blackhawks

The St. Louis Blues thought they had scored one of the biggest postseason goals in their recent history. Instead, Game 2 of their divisional quarterfinal against the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday night will be remembered for one of the biggest game-changing implementations of the NHL coach’s challenge in the mechanism’s first season. 

Vladimir Tarasenko put his second puck of the night behind goalie Corey Crawford of the Blackhawks, giving the Blues a 2-1 lead with just 7:54 left. But coach Joel Quenneville decided to use his coach’s challenge to see if center Jori Lehtera had entered the attacking zone before the puck did, which would negate the play on an offside. 

At first, it appeared Lehtera was in the clear. But cameras placed on the blue line showed one skate over the blue line and his other skate hanging above the ice as the puck was completely in the Blackhawks’ zone.

After a painfully long review, the goal was waved off, and Blues fans lustily booed.

From the NHL:

After reviewing all available replays and consulting with NHL Hockey Operations staff, the Linesman determined that St. Louis’ Jori Lehtera was off-side prior to the goal. According to Rule 78.7, “The standard for overturning the call in the event of a ‘GOAL’ call on the ice is that the Linesman, after reviewing any and all available replays and consulting with the Toronto Video Room, determines that one or more Players on the attacking team preceded the puck into the attacking zone prior to the goal being scored and that, as a result, the play should have been stopped for an “Off-side” infraction; where this standard is met, the goal will be disallowed.” 

St. Louis captain David Backes was mum on the play after the game. 

“I’ve seen that offsides a million times,” Backes said. “We will bite our tongues on it. It was a play where it’s a critical time in a game, and you hope that they were 100 percent sure they saw what they saw.”

Said Blues coach Ken Hitchcock, “When you play the defending Cup champions, you’re going to have to fight through a lot of stuff. That’s the way it is. Calls aren’t going to your way. You’re not going to get the officiating you want. It’s always going to seem like it’s one-sided. Big deal. Fight through it.”

Oh, but the coach’s challenge fun didn’t end there!

Tarasenko slashed the stick out of Chicago winger Andrew Shaw’s hands, earning a penalty with 6:12 left. Shaw ended up scoring with 4:19 remaining to give the Blackhawks a 2-1 lead.

 OR DID HE?!

The NHL’s War Room ordered a video review to find out how the puck entered the net, as Shaw was crowding goalie Brian Elliott’s crease. It was announced as a good goal.

Then Blues coach Ken Hitchcock requested his own coach’s challenge to see if Shaw had interfered with Elliott’s pad in scoring the goal. After a much shorter delay, the referees ruled that Shaw hadn’t, it was a “good goal” and the Blackhawks had their lead.

Artemi Panarin scored an empty-netter that ended up being necessary, as a Blues’ buzzer-beater from Kevin Shattenkirk made it a 3-2 final score, with Chicago evening the series.

We were all waiting to see which game, and which series, would be greatly affected by a late-game video review. Welp … here we are.

“You don’t like it when it works against you, and you like it when it works for you,” Chicago defenseman Duncan Keith said. “Caught a break there. But that’s the rule.”

The good news is that the officials used every available camera angle on their little handheld Nintendo DS-sized screens and got the call right.

The bad news is that this will probably light a fire under the debate about whether offside calls should be eligible for a coach’s challenge. It’s not even human error on a play that fast – it’s the kind of little missed detail that used to go unnoticed on an otherwise fabulous scoring play.

On the one hand, it was the right call. On other hand, when complaints about a lack of goal-scoring in the NHL is far louder than that for accuracy in offside calls, is this really what the coach’s challenge should be scrutinizing?

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Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at [email protected] or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.

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