The New York Rangers were the victim of a bad high-sticking call on Thursday and an apology didn’t do anything for David Quinn.
Late in the first period of the New York Rangers 7-5 loss to the Islanders on Thursday night, center Mika Zibanejad was whistled for a double minor penalty for high sticking and cutting the face of Islanders Leo Komarov.
The infraction was actually committed by the stick of fellow teammate Valtteri Filppula, confirmed by instant replay, but the call had to remain anyway. Video replay is not allowed on penalty infractions.
Referee Dan O’Halloran came over to the Rangers prior to the start of the second period to let the team know he made an error on that call. David Quinn’s postgame response, via the New York Post, about the situation was a huge.
“Whoop-de-do.”
The refs apologized to David Quinn after missing a call.
The #NYR coach remained unimpressed.
Full video ?️ https://t.co/0p7ej4sSTv pic.twitter.com/73RQKvqIvu
— MSG Networks (@MSGNetworks) November 16, 2018
One can understand his reaction.
An acknowledgment after the fact did not help the Rangers kill off the four-minute minor to Zibanejad, which by the way they were able to do. Nor did it make the head coach feel better that he was right and the officials were wrong.
What would have made the situation better was if they could have looked at the video and made the correct call. The Rangers saw the replay on the bench and MSG Networks showed the replay coming out of the commercial break, too.
This is not a knock against the officials.
O’Halloran had a split second to see the play and make the call at the time he thought was right. MSG had about a minute and a half to look at different angles of the play before they came back on air to show what really occurred.
Instant replay has its pros and cons as does everything in connection to television and the game. The replay on goal reviews are excellent yet the offside reviews are long and most times unnecessary. If not for a totally blown offsides call in a Montreal playoff game a few years back, the offside review probably would not even be used in the game today.
Get The Call Right
Replay reviews should not be used on minor penalties as the human factor is as much part of the game as skating down the ice. It is the reason the offside replay should be removed, but on a double minor call where a player is cut the NHL needs to look at the possibility of backing the call up on the ice.
The game doesn’t need to be slowed down. The on-ice officials should not be required to even look at the play. It should all fall in the war room in Toronto, the same way a video replay of a goal/no goal is looked at. It would work seamlessly and without any interference to the game unless a call needs to be made or changed.
The league has so many camera angles to use that a play like the one Thursday night could have been corrected before the on-ice officials even checked with Toronto. Today’s vast modern technology allows for this speedy process to take place without impacting the length of a hockey game.
Referee’s get together to discuss goals, if a puck goes out of play off the glass or not, and to discuss high sticking call that is worthy of a five-minute major even for too-many-men on the ice penalties. The purpose of these on ice get-togethers is to get the call right. Taking a look at replays on double-minor high sticking calls.
An apology after viewing a bad call is nice, but a correct call after seeing a review would be much better.
