Here’s how the NHL can fix its massive review problem

The NHL saw yet another controversial call in Wednesday’s Blues vs. Sharks overtime thriller. Here are three ways the league can fix their review problem.

The San Jose Sharks have easily been the luckiest team in the NHL playoffs when it comes to referee help. The Vegas Golden Knights were downed by the Sharks after a bad 5-minute major was called against them, the Avvalanche had a tying goal stripped because of a very strange offside rule and now they won a tight overtime game on one of the most obvious illegal plays we’ve seen in these playoffs. Something has to change.

Erik Karlsson told reporters after the game that “Neither team drew the shortest stick on any of the calls out there, so it was a fair game.” He’s not wrong. There were three calls in total that should have been blown dead, two of which were about as obvious as humanly possible: Blues’ David Perron shooting the puck over the glass in the second period before netting two goals he shouldn’t have even been on the ice for (this is becoming a real issue) and the hand pass that won the Sharks game 3. Neither of these calls are reviewable.

It didn’t take long for that hypothetical situation we all feared to actually happen. “What if that missed call decides a game?” The St. Louis Blues were robbed of game 3 in the Western Conference Finals against the San Jose Sharks when a hand pass from Timo Meier that helped set up Erik Karlsson for the game winning goal in overtime.

Who is the NHL protecting by not making plays like this reviewable? The fans? Obviously not. The officials? Definitely not – most of Missouri wants them dead. Just about everyone hates the offsides review but it’s in place to ensure the call on the ice is the right one. Here, we have a play that could directly affect a goal and it isn’t even possible to look at? How do we fix this problem?

Here are three potential solutions that the league should explore in the offseason.