NHL admits Colton Orr goal was a bad call
No surprise there. NHL today admitted that officials blew the call on Colton Orr’s hit to Carolina Panthers' goal tender, Scott Clemmensen. Toronto’s winger crashed blindside into the Panthers' goalie. It should have been a two minute penalty but instead
it became the tie breaker goal for the Toronto Maples Leafs.
Leafs and Panthers were tied 1 – 1 in the third period. The defensively cautious Panthers had allowed a first period, 19th minute power play goal to Tyler Bozak but came back with an equalizer in the 14th minute of the second. Dennis
Wideman scored for the Panthers with assists from Bryan McCabe and Stephen Weiss, also during a power play.
Both defences were running a tight shift. They hardly made any mistakes and were also stingy with the penalties. In the 60 minutes of play, there were a total of five power plays and two of them led to goals. What should have been a penalty on Colton Orr
would have been the only power play of the 3rd period. That possible opportunity for the Panthers to score the winning goal was lost.
When Orr ran over Scott Clemmensen, Tim Brent was just about to shoot the puck into the net. Brent was awarded the assist because the puck brushed Orr’s skates before going into the net. Clemmensen had absolutely no hope of stopping the puck, or even a chance
to try. He was down on the ice with Orr on top of him. Orr claimed that he was pushed onto the goal tender and didn’t crash into him on purpose.
Rookie referee, Francis Charron maintains that Orr was outside of the crease and thus a legitimate target. That, unfortunately for Charron and Panthers, was just simply not the case. It was a bad call on his part and there is no changing that. Clemmensen
protested but Charron didn’t see it his way, neither did Stephen Walkom. Walkom is an experienced official and has served as director of NHL officials. Such a call was unexpected of him, however, he was blocked and wasn’t close to the action to have been able
to make the right call.
Clemmensen wasn’t the only one who protested the call. Panthers' coach, Peter de Boer was also furious but went to great lengths to make sure that he didn’t say anything he would later come to regret. Having the game decided on a bad call was disappointing
for de Boer. “It was a good hockey game, a 1-1 game through 55 minutes, and it’s just disappointing for a game to be decided that way.” de Boer added that points were critical for the Panthers. They have been in a situation where they missed the playoffs by
a single point.
When de Boer was asked what he thought of a veteran official like Stephen Walkom letting such a bad call stand, the coach avoided a straight answer with humour, “You guys are really pushing. I’ve got three kids and a mortgage. I’m not going there.”
Panthers' General Manager registered a protest of his own with NHL’s Vice President, Collin Campbell. He demanded an explanation for why the goal was allowed to stand? And why Orr didn’t get a penalty for the illegal play?
Campbell offered an apology but the outcome of the game could not be changed. “It’s quite obvious if they had the chance to see it again, you would hope the call would be made that it was interference on a goal tender.” Campbell added that things like that
did happen in professional hockey even if they don’t happen very often.
There was unanimous agreement that Orr indeed should have been penalized. Not even the Maple Leafs challenged that assertion. Toronto’s coach, Ron Wilson admitted that Orr ‘ran over’ Clemmensen. “I mean, Colton took the goalie out and it should have been
a penalty — let’s be honest”, said Wilson.
After Orr’s goal, Leafs scored again to finish the game with three goals against one. How different the outcome would have been if it had been called right? No one can say for sure.
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