Mar 16, 2016
Thumbs to video review, Wings' playoff push
TSN's Dave Hodge extends his thumb to video review and the length of time it takes to determine if a play was a fraction of an inch offside. He also gives thumbs to the Detroit Red Wings and their battle to qualify for a playoff spot for the 25th straight time.
By Dave Hodge
NHL general managers began their meetings in Boca Raton, Florida by assessing the results of the coach’s challenge system, and declared it is working as expected. That is to say, it produces widespread disagreement when a call is made, and that is unavoidable.
Well, here’s something that isn’t - lengthy delays in determining if goalie interference had been committed or if a play was offside.
The only problem with video review is that it tries too hard and takes too long to get each and every call right. Oh, but that’s the idea, you say. No, I say. The idea is to create a blend of human judgment and technological evidence that allows most calls to be correct calls in a timely manner that doesn’t turn the game into an episode of CSI.
Hockey, and every other sport, survived quite well before cameras and tape machines assumed many of the referees’ responsibilities. It is terrific that an egregious mistake by an on-ice official can be corrected, but it is ridiculous that five minutes or more can be taken to determine if a play was a fraction of an inch offside. The game can live with a mistake like that, because the game needs to breathe, it needs to move, and video review needs to be put in its place.
With a show of hands, the general managers should have voted to limit each and every review to a maximum of two minutes. If, by then, nothing is seen to require a call on the ice to be overturned, the call stands. The GMs could have taken that vote, and I suggest the result should have been unanimous, is no more than….you guessed it…. two minutes.
Wing and a Prayer
Not to pick on the Detroit Red Wings, but their battle to qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs for the 25th straight time is liable to be the most interesting part of this season’s final month. As great as that record has been, failure to add to it threatens to embarrass the Wings.
When Detroit lost 1-0 to the Leafs on Sunday, it became popular to identify that game as the one that would be considered the streak-buster if the Red Wings missed the playoffs by a point or two.
Not so fast, for next came the first period of last night’s game in Philadelphia, truly a more important game than the one against Toronto, because it’s the Flyers who are the most direct threat to Detroit’s playoff longevity.
The Wings “responded” with a reminder of what the “Philly flu” used to look like. They were outshot 23-3 (“thumbs down, obviously), and went with bowed heads to their dressing room trailing 2-0.
I’d say “only” 2-0, but a Detroit team that has failed to score more than three goals in regulation play in 39 of their last 43 games has almost no chance of winning with a start like that.
So, sure, the Red Wings were better than the Flyers the rest of the way, but they didn’t score more than three times, and they lost 4-3, and they are in a playoff spot by only a single point, having played two more games than Philadelphia. As stated earlier, that race should get most of the attention down the stretch.
Maybe it gets better for Detroit. It can hardly get worse than the last two games.