The Nashville Predators were none too pleased with a ruling on the ice Thursday that led to Jannik Hansen’s goal in a 7-4 loss to Vancouver.
“We couldn’t see any evidence of the puck going in,” Predators coach Barry Trotz told The Tennessean. “The only person in the rink who saw it go in was the referee.”
The referee in question was No. 40, Steve Kozari, who signaled a goal despite the fact that -- as Trotz pointed out -- nobody ever really saw it go in the net:
Granted, the logic of Kozari’s on-ice call seems simple. Nearly all of Preds goalie Chris Mason was essentially in the net, so the puck must have be in there too.
The hiccup, of course, is that once a goal is ruled good on the ice, there needs to be conclusive replay evidence to overturn the call -- which there wasn’t.
This wasn’t the only call Nashville took offense to.
Both Trotz and Shea Weber were displeased with the hooking penalty called on Sergei Kostitsyn with 2:34 left in the third period, which led to this Henrik Sedin penalty shot:
“I thought it was light,” Trotz told the Tennessean.
“Tough call,” added Weber. “Obviously they saw it one way.”