Goalie interference reviews have been a hot topic in the NHL this week, so it seems worthwhile to bring up two interesting examples from Saturday’s slew of games.
As you can see in exhaustive detail in the video above this post’s headline, Sidney Crosby seemed to score his 400th regular-season goal, but that would-be tally was waved off because of interference on New Jersey Devils goalie Keith Kinkaid.
Honestly, it seems like a fair call, but it’s curious that a stick-to-the-head/mask call went the other way after the James Neal situation earlier this week.
The league’s write-up notes that the on-ice call went from goal to no-goal after officials huddled, and then the review process backed up the opinion that Bryan Rust interfered with Kinkaid.
One cannot help but wonder if this review should have also bubbled up another debatable topic/headache for the NHL: should Kinkaid have undergone the concussion protocol? The questions just keep piling up, eh?
Keith Kinkaid had no idea Crosby’s shot hit him in the head until we mentioned it in the locker room. Said he was distracted by getting hit in the throat.
— Chris Ryan (@ChrisRyan_NJ) February 4, 2018
That goal would have made things closer; instead, the Devils ended up winning 3-1. New Jersey dominated much of the proceedings, much to Mike Sullivan’s frustration.
Crosby’s been stuck at 399 goals for eight games now, but he probably doesn’t care. He’d been piling up points at a blistering pace, with Saturday ending his point streak at 11 games (three goals, 19 assists for 22 points!).
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While Crosby’s goal didn’t count, Jonathan Huberdeau’s did, giving the Florida Panthers a 3-2 win against the Detroit Red Wings in the waning moments of regulation:
Personally, both calls seemed reasonable enough, but what do you think? Huberdeau did bump Petr Mrazek, but was that enough?
Or do we have any idea what constitutes goalie interference, in general?
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James O’Brien is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @cyclelikesedins.