Matthews' disallowed goal is causing outrage and highlighting the inconsistency among NHL officials
Parity in officiating has been around probably as long as there has been officiating. There are a couple of reasons for this for sure, including, but not limited to, each individual having a different opinion (yes this includes referees, they're people too), and simple human error.
On Wednesday night, Toronto Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews and his teammates thought that he had tied a longstanding NHL record, scoring in 11 consecutive road games - a record that was set back in 1988-89 by Steve Yzerman, and tied in 1993-94 by Pavel Bure. The problem was the the puck that found its way into the net did so off of Matthews' skate blade.
The call on the ice was that of a good goal, but after a very quick review and not much deliberation at all, the goal was overturned, costing Matthews a share of the obscure road-goal scoring record. The problem is, there have been pucks that have gone in off of very similar redirections, with the goals being allowed. Here's a good example below.
So if one of these goals was allowed, why wasn't the other? They're, at large, the same play. Pucks being redirected towards the net with the skate blade, with the only difference being that Tierney didn't even attempt to swipe at the puck with his stick after the redirection, whereas Auston Matthews clearly tried to play the puck with his stick afterward.
This is just another example of how the officials, one way or another, got it wrong. Either BOTH of these plays are good goals, or NEITHER of these plays are good goals. The NHL has to stop with this double-standard nonsense. I get that there are nuances to consider with every individual play, but in my opinion, if the call on the ice is a good goal, there was simply not enough there to overturn it, given what we've seen with other, more egregious kicking motions having been allowed.
