But they literally do. That is absolutely how the review process works and has worked for a long time.
No, they literally don’t. The rulebook specifies the exact penalties where a minor becomes a major due to injuries, and which penalties (like kneeing) are based entirely on the act with no reference to injury outcome.
The refs memorize the rulebook and are tested on it constantly. You can be damned sure that 4 of them didn’t simultaneously forget that kneeing majors are awarded based solely on the action, not on injury outcome.
If you want to say the
original major was called on the ice in order to facilitate a review, then sure. We know that happens all the time, because it leads to better calls than attempting to make a judgment without the benefit of review.
But once the 4 officials circled up to discuss, and then the 2 refs took it to video review, the injury/non-injury dynamic ceased to matter. They were only looking at short slow-mi clips of what Meier did on the play, to determine whether his actions rose to the level of a major. How long Necas stayed in the locker room was completely irrelevant to the outcome of the review.
Continuing to push this narrative where a whole team of refs just started making up rules is just a bad look. That’s not how it works, and closer to conspiracy talk than real analysis.