St. Louis Blues: NHL Got That Offside Right, Even If It was Wrong

The St. Louis Blues benefited from an offside call against the Colorado Avalanche. That call has drawn a lot of undue controversy.

If you watched the St. Louis Blues against the Colorado Avalanche, you saw it. If you missed the game, you’ve likely heard about it by now.

The Blues won the game 4-3, thanks in large part to an offside call – an offside call that had to be reviewed. Colorado thought they had tied the game and the goal was instead called back.

One thing before we get into it. The Blues are to blame for giving up on the play. That’s the sort of thing that irritates the heck out of me in soccer. I can’t stand when defenders put their arms in the air to make the call and just stand around.

Now to the meat of it. There is a lot being made of this situation and it just boggles the mind for me.

If you’d like to read the opposite end of the spectrum, check out the Avalanche point of view. It’s a well written article that explains why the league was wrong in allowing a challenge. I just come at the same situation from a different view.

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To boil it down to the simplest form, apparently the league was wrong in reviewing the play because the offside occurred when leaving the zone. Only entries into the zone can be reviewed.

That is quite ridiculous. The league got it right and the correct end result came about. It would have been an injustice for that goal to stand because of some technicality about what can and cannot be challenged.

Avalanche fans are right to be upset because the challenge should not have been allowed. Blues fans would probably feel the same way if situations were reversed.

However, in reality, it should never have come down to that. The officials had a meeting before the coach’s challenge came about.

You have three other guys wearing stripes (two referees and one other linesman). All of them should have been looking at something around that area and could have seen a player that was a good yard offside.

Either a whistle could have been blown before the goal was scored or the shot even taken or they should have rectified it all during the meeting. Instead they copped out and let Mike Yeo take the challenge.

The video clearly showed the Avalanche player offside, touch the puck, leave the zone and then immediately return. While it is understandable to be upset over a technicality, it is stupid that it is not even reviewable. It directly affected a scoring play, so trying to say only zone entries can be looked at was poor wording when it came about.

We are at the point in sports where things need to just be gotten right. There is a point where the human element is no longer a valid excuse for missing calls that could clearly be seen by anyone.

The refs had to have seen the offside. The trail linesman could probably see that the player was offside.

The league’s language is somewhat disappointing as well. It is fine to say there was an error, but just say the ultimate call was correct.

The goal should not have counted because of a poor choice of words in a rule book. Doug Armstrong said as much to the media when the league made the apology.

“The wording of the rule is wrong, not the call on the ice,” Armstrong said. “I don’t think anyone that watched the game last night or that know hockey like the back of your hand think that’s a goal that we want to count.”

Again, I’m not upset at Avalanche fans. Blues fans have been on the opposite side plenty of times. Look back at any reactions during that Blackhawks playoff series in 2016. Referee’s ears were probably on fire there was so much talk about them.

Next: Blues Fans Should Win FanSided Fan of the Year

The issue is more with wording. The correct call was made, regardless of whether it came about in the wrong way. We should want that to happen more often, even if it hurts our own teams.

We do not need every little ticky tac thing reviewed, but when it is something like that the league should be fine with getting it right.

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