The Boston Bruins were awful on Saturday against the Columbus Blue Jackets, but the most discussed point will be a blown call by the officials. The puck was shot out of bounds and into the netting above the boards with time ticking down in the second period. Boston announcer Jack Edwards was under the impression play would eventually be halted and brought back and that all of the action taking place wouldn’t count.
Well, the Blue Jackets scored and the play wasn’t brought back. As you might imagine, Edwards freaked out.
Edwards has a right to be mad about the officials initially missing the puck going out of bounds, but the goal was a good one.
The NHL released a statement regarding the goal and explained why it counted, as seen on Puck Daddy:
At 17:43 of the second period in the Boston Bruins/Columbus Blue Jackets game, the puck appeared to hit the spectator netting in the Columbus zone and play continued until the Blue Jackets scored a goal at 19:09.
According to Rule 85.1, play shall be stopped when the puck hits the spectator netting unless it goes unnoticed by the on-ice officials, in which case ‘play shall continue as normal and resulting play with the puck shall be deemed a legitimate play.’ Since play continued and the puck was not directed into the net as an immediate result of hitting the spectator netting, this is not a reviewable play and the on-ice decision stands – good goal Columbus.
Long story short, the missed out of bounds call didn’t directly result in the goal so the goal was not reviewed and not overturned.
Edwards’ anger and confusion are pretty understandable as other situations such as a missed goal result in the clocking being rewound and brought back to when the incident occurred.
The Bruins need to be more concerned with their recent stretch of mediocre play rather than one blown call by the officials.
