Blackhawks win tainted by worst call of the season (Video)

The Chicago Blackhawks comeback against the Colorado Avalanche was led by an inexcusable overturned offsides call. 

Recently, the NHL introduced the coach’s challenge. It is allegedly supposed to help refs make up for terrible calls they might have missed. Teams are supposed to benefit from it, as correct calls are confirmed and bad calls are overturned.

However, it’s hard to say the system is working after what happened to the Colorado Avalanche. During Sunday’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks, Jonathan Toews was offsides. Somehow, the refs thought he was on-sides. This led to a goal for the Hawks, which eventually led to a 6-3 win.

Toews doesn’t even come close to touching the blue line on this one. The sad thing is, this isn’t the first time a team has done something like this. Just last month, the Minnesota Wild pulled off the same thing (ironically against Chicago). If this is legal, teams are exploiting a loophole and the NHL is doing nothing to change it. How this could be seen as a loophole is questionable. It’s clearly offsides.

The NHL, as it always does, issued a statement on why the call was upheld.

However, the explanation is inadequate. When Richard Panik touched the puck and where Toews was when he did it is irrelevant. Delayed offsides should have been called. Coach’s challenges are supposed to fix mistakes, not allow them. The possession rule would have been in play if Toews was the puck handler. However, Panik was the player carrying the puck into the offensive zone, so it’s not relevant.

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To be fair, the Avalanche are probably happy they lost at this point. They own the NHL’s worst record and the worse they do, the better their chances of getting the first overall pick. But it’s horrible to lose a game on such a bad call.