Two games into the young season, there is much to be excited about for the Minnesota Wild faithful. We blew out Colorado 5-0 at our home, and season, opener on October 8th and held up a stronger, more determined Avalanche squad last night in Colorado spoiling their home opener. Although we were outplayed threw long portions of the game, we skated hard, defended well, and we had a determined goaltender in Darcy Kuemper who, for the second game in a row, didn’t allow a goal.
There were a couple controversial calls that changed the momentum in the game greatly. The first came early in the second period when Erik Johnson laid a vicious hit to Erik Haula which resulted in a 5-minute major and a game misconduct. The hit, which was an elbow-to-the head hit that left Haula on the ice and a trip to the locker room, is currently being reviewed by the NHL. The second controversial call came later in the second period.
The Wild were attacking in the Colorado zone and Nino Niederreiter was crashing the net. Jan Hejda pushed Niederreiter in the back causing him to fall on top of Avalanche goaltender Semyon Varlamov. Right as the Niederreiter fell on Varlomov, Charlie Coyle flipped the puck in the top of the net which immediately drew a side-wave of the arms from the referee standing behind the net indicating that the goal would not count. The no-goal would be reviewed by the NHL and the call was upheld.
According to the NHL Review Room, “Wild forward Nino Niederreiter made incidental contact with Avalanche goaltender Semyon Varlamov. This is not a reviewable play, therefore, the referee’s call on the ice stands – no penalty and no goal for Minnesota.”
Is it time for the NHL to review their review process? Why should a team be punished for a forward being checked onto a goaltender causing the goal to be waived off? Ultimately, the review process should not only review the goal itself, it should also review the action around the net and the plays leading up to the goal. In this case, the Avalanche should have suffered the goal Coyle scored since Hejda was the reason Niederreiter was on top of Varlomov. If adding these processes to the review makes the review longer, I would be okay with that, as long as the goal is correctly called.
I have seen too many instances where a goal was waived off because of this rule; the Wild specifically have been on the wrong side of this rule far too many times. Luckily, this no-goal didn’t effect the outcome of the game and the Wild got the goal back a few minutes later on a snipe by Jason Zucker.
Hopefully the NHL takes time now, or next offseason, to review and modify the goal review process so that, moving forward, these goals are overturned as good goals.