Julian touched the puck, therefore he should’ve gotten the assist instead of Cowan. But, that’s not on the Knights. That’s on the Ranger stats crew. Whoever was tracking the play missed the Julian touch and Cowan was awarded the assist.
For those, who don’t know, the way it works upstairs is that there is a person with pen and paper and his sole job is to record the number of each player who touches the pluck during the entire play for each team. He’ll jot down the number of each player who touches the puck and then stop when a goal is scored or the puck changes possession, and resume recording the numbers of the other team. So leading up to this goal, he likely recorded 7, 90, 51, 90, goal. When in fact, he should’ve been recording 7, 13, 90, 51, 90, goal. (Sim redirected the puck to Woolley with his skate after Julian touched it with his stick).
Often, when a team has an issue with the official scoring, they’ll approach the official scorer with their concern. Sometimes they get things changed and sometimes they don’t. Had the Knights been looking to get Julian credited with an assist, they probably would’ve sent somebody to talk to the official scorer. Back in the day, I’ve seen Jim McKellar approach official scorers at the Aud during an intermission, politely questioning a scoring play. “Didn’t a particular player touch the puck? Etc. etc..”.
There was even an issue years ago, where Steve Spott got into a confrontation with the Rangers official scorer, demanding Ryan Murphy be credited with an assist. The scorer told him he couldn’t issue him an assist because he didn’t touch the park. He told Spott that he didn’t work for the Rangers, he worked for the league. Spott said back to him, that might be true, but we decide who works in your position. Murphy wasn’t credited with an assist.
If it meant anything to the Knights that Julian get the assist, no doubt they would pursue. But as Tim Wallach said on here, Julian will probably say he didn’t touch it so Cowen keeps the streak alive.
I doubt the Rangers really care either way to pursue it themselves.
If the league wants to get particular about it, they could review the tape and take the assist away from Cowan, and give it to Julian. But, I would assume that the league would rather leave it the way it is as it’s probably makes for a better story.
I know he went over the fight limit. We miss having him on the bench along with Ellinas who isn't afraid to drop the mitts. Just having them on the bench gives opposing players pause for thought when they start running around looking for hits.
