Kovacevic: The NHL replay system failed

WASHINGTON -- "Whatever," Patric Hornqvist would scoff my way, his big equipment bag just slung over his shoulder as he walked out of the visitors' locker room at Capital One Arena. "It's not like there's anything we can do about it, anyway."

Nope. Not a thing.

But I'll bet it still felt at least a little therapeutic for all involved to publicly acknowledge the glaringly obvious.

"It was a goal," Hornqvist would say.

"It had to be a goal," Sidney Crosby would say.

“My view was that it was 100 percent a goal," Mike Sullivan would say from the coach's podium.

I've got many more similar assessments I could share, but most of those are unprintable. Family site and all that.

The anger that the Penguins felt following their 4-1 loss to the Capitals in Game 2 of this Stanley Cup playoff series Sunday afternoon was partly at themselves for another sluggish start, partly at the on-ice officiating for somehow missing Tom Wilson's head shot on Brian Dumoulin, but maybe more than any of those, they clearly would have loved for Hornqvist's goal to have counted.

Because it was a goal.

That's not an opinion, my friends. That's a photographically verifiable fact:

And having come at 9:03 of the third period with the Penguins down two, they'd have been a shot away from tying after roaring back from another big deficit. They'd have had all the momentum, all the mojo, all backed by all the demons that invariably infiltrate this opponent in this particular playoff matchup.

Instead ... well, not even the Capitals could blow this one.

Crosby began the rush, and he did so with a flourish he'd shown all day, whisking down the left wing of the Washington zone, then emerging from behind Braden Holtby's net to set up a simple shot for Hornqvist at the right lip.

Holtby got the leg pad across, but ...

Hard to tell, right?

OK, let's start here: Chris Rooney, not pictured, is not pictured for a reason. Because he's all the way over by the right boards. That's not terrible position, as he's along the goal line and has to be cognizant of Crosby coming with speed, but he's still way too far to make any call with conviction.

And yet, after a moment's hesitation, he emphatically waved both arms to signal no goal.

That's the first problem, because his ruling is now the default if the NHL's video replay officials in Toronto can't come up with anything conclusive. Because if they can't, then the ruling on the ice is final. It's not much different than a courtroom, related to burden of proof, in that a reversal has to come beyond reasonable doubt.

Meaning beyond reasonable doubt like this:

It was a goal.

There can be excessive analysis in matters like these, such as the snow over to the right or the angle being used. It's all silly. There's a red line up there. Visually, that red line continues across through a segment where there's white visible between the line and the puck. What's happening to the right is a distraction, nothing more.

#HockeyOps explains “no goal” video review at 9:03 of the third period in the @penguins/@Capitals game. #PITvsWSH #StanleyCup https://t.co/xEM1BjKl7q

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) April 29, 2018

In its glorious entirety, the explanation: "At 9:03 of the third period in the Penguins/Capitals game, the Situation Room initiated a video review to further examine a play at the Washington net. Video review determined that there were no definitive replays which showed that the puck completely crossed the Washington goal line. Therefore, the Referee's call on the ice stands - no goal Pittsburgh."

The capitalization of 'Situation Room' is theirs, by the way. They're the best.

That obviously adds nothing to the conversation, other than maybe that the referees weren't the ones who asked for help even though Rooney made the initial call from somewhere in Baltimore.

This might add something, a communication I received late Sunday night via Twitter from the prominent Vancouver-based, GoPro-sponsored stickhandling ace Brandon Barber:

Here's an ice version. Check one of my tweets for the one the NHL panel did. pic.twitter.com/5P1VmBtmGZ

— Pavel Barber (@HeyBarber) April 30, 2018

See what this is?

Took me a little while, but I eventually figured out it's the glass-type effect of two inches of ice. An amazing theory, but I'm afraid it's affording far too much credit to imagine these guys in Toronto getting all 3-D on us.

Some of the participants went Zapruder deep on this.

"The view I saw in between the benches wasn’t great," Hornqvist said of borrowing a peek at NBC analyst Pierre McGuire's iPad. "But my view from up top -- with my eyes -- it looked like it was in.”

I pressed him a bit, noting that it wouldn't exactly be his style to skate away with arms raised if he'd had any doubt, and he came back, "I saw it. I saw it right there."

"I understand what they're saying," Crosby said, "that they don't have a clear view of the puck over the line. I think you can see the puck is on its edge behind the post. It's not possible for it to touch the line. I don't know the angles they had, but, on the one I saw, it had to be a goal."

"When you blow it up, you can see the white," Sullivan said. "It's behind the post. Whether you use deductive reasoning where you can see the white, whatever it might be, that's how we saw it. We respectfully disagree with the league and their ruling. But that's not anything that we can control.”

Holtby deserves some applause for the successful straddle as one of his 32 saves in a strong performance, as well as for discussing the sequence. A lot of goaltenders wouldn't.

"I was kind of playing Crosby on the far side," he said. "I didn't think he was going to have a chance to get the wrap. I was trying to get around for that wrap, and he had a little pass in front, and there was a shot that hit my pad. I kind of spun around and, by the time I looked, the puck was on the goal line. And I tried to get my right foot back to try and keep it out. I haven't really seen a replay. It happened pretty quick."

Maybe the NHL's situation room could come up with critical decisions like this more quickly and more accurately if it installed actual goal-line technology, as has long existed in tennis, soccer, swimming, track and many other sports.

Sorry, that should be SITUATION ROOM™.

MATT SUNDAY GALLERY