Quote:
Originally Posted by hwy19man
Jets win with twenty seconds left in overtime. Scheifle scores the winner after a long challenge and replay to see if the play was offside or not.
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That is completely ridiculous on so many levels.
First of all, even if it was offside, it had no bearing whatsoever on the goal being scored. If offsides are going to continue to be reviewable (which I've been against from the beginning), there should absolutely be a time limit on how far back they can wind the clock to review it. If you have to rewind more than 10 seconds (hell, I'd put the limit at 5 seconds) to even find when the puck crossed the line, too bad, you got scored on. Suck it up, Buttercup.
Secondly, if it takes longer to review it than it did to play the entirety of overtime, that's pretty much the definition of inconclusive and the call on the ice stands. Sure, if you're trying to determine whether or not the puck crossed the line, take your time to get it right. The Coach's Challenge reviews are still up to the judgement of the guys on the ice, so if there isn't something blatantly obvious on the first two replay angles to make them change the call immediately, the call on the ice should stand.
Plus, there's the ridiculous minutia of how the offside rule is enforced. The player's skate and most of his body is on top of the blue line, yet, they're trying to figure out if his blade is touching the ice to determine if he's offside. How can any rational person who understands the intent of the offside rule take one look at the overhead camera angle of the play and think that he should be considered offside regardless of whether his skate is touching the ice or 1 cm off it? By the spirit of the offside rule, his position is absolutely 100% on-side.
Also, there should be a fine imposed on coaches who challenge OT goals and lose. They can't lose their timeout, so there's no incentive to not challenge the play if there's any chance you might get a favourable call. Trotz also challenged the Flames' OT winner against them a couple of weeks ago for being offside, when it wasn't. He's just wasting everyone's time at this point.