St. Louis Blues Proving Replay Is Not Always Great

The St. Louis Blues are not the only team dealing with the letdown of replays. The thing that stinks is a technology to make things better removes joy.

The St. Louis Blues are just like any other NHL team in that they have ups and downs, good breaks and bad breaks. However, since we pay more attention to them than any other team, they always seem to have the weirdest luck.

What other team has goals in two consecutive games called back based on replay? Poor Jordan Kyrou came up snake eyes on both occasions due to his inability to drag his skate on the blue line.

Of course, it is undeniable that the replay officials got the call right. As our friends over at Game Time discussed, the problem is that it robs the game of some joy.

In the situation for Kyrou, we momentarily thought he had his third goal of the season – twice. Each time showcased some serious finishing skill by a guy that fans are unquestionably excited about.

However, their joy and excitement was for naught. You got the high of the goal without the satisfaction of the team benefiting on the scoreboard.

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It’s bad enough in a regular season game in January. As Trevor Kraus pointed out in his article, can you imagine the gut-wrenching heart break if that same thing happened when it really mattered?

The city of St. Louis might have imploded had Carl Gunnarsson‘s overtime winner been called back for offside in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final. Not only would fans have been robbed of the thrill of an overtime winner, they might have been denied the team’s first ever game win in a Cup Final.

Fans in bars, soaked in beer, would have felt cold and wet with no joy of victory. That’s the deal. The calls might be right, but it takes a little of the fun away from the game.

It must be said that the NHL at least gets these calls right with solid regularity, with the exception of goaltender interference. Unlike the NFL and MLB, there is not a solid argument for referee pride or league bias getting in the way of getting the call right.

Again, it takes the fun away from the game in these instances. In the back of your mind, you wonder if it is alright to actually celebrate until they actually drop the puck on the next faceoff.

Soccer fans already know this pain. VAR has quickly become expected after every goal. Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, even made a comment recently that he may have to stop celebrating goals since they get evaluated so often. For those unaware, Klopp is famous for his fan-like celebrations on the sideline.

As fans, we are put in a conundrum. We want calls to be right, but really it only matters to us when it benefits us.

When it goes against us, you feel that ironic twist that the very thing we begged for is now costing you a goal, perhaps a win and valuable points. Sports sure is funny.

We all yell at the screen and say if replay was allowed in this situation or that, it would be a perfect world. However, for every blown pass interference call as bad as the one missed for the New Orleans Saints, there are ten plays that nobody would have known anything was wrong with it if there was not staff members serving as an eye in the sky.

If the San Jose Sharks or Buffalo Sabres had to go on gut feeling with no replay coach immediately viewing the game on a tablet, there is no chance in hell they would challenge either of those Kyrou goals. It was not something that stood out to anyone in real time as being an egregious miss.

As Blues fans, it stinks to get the short end of the stick on both sides. They get goals called back, correctly, due to replay, but cannot get a clear and obvious mistake reversed, such as the hand pass, because replay is not available in that instance.

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Thus, in an effort to be perfect, the game is robbed of a little excitement.

In the end, it would be hard to say anyone would give up replay totally. It is just a downer to have that creeping doubt in the back of your mind every time your team scores.

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