Scott Wedgewood injured in pain on the ice. Refs don't blow the whistle. Buffalo scores

[Mike C]

yea they should. you shouldnt be shooting the puck at an injured player.

Play until the whistle blows. Otherwise, what's to stop goalies from pretending to be injured whenever there is pressure on him. As as opposing player, it's not my fault or my problem that someone is injured. This isn't school yard stuff. It's professional show biz. Shit happens

 

[Dirty Dog]

And Avs fans being extra salty adds to the lunacy of this play. Just a comically dumb and absurd sports play. I love it

I don’t know how you can take the play seriously or get angry about the goal counting, but having the opposite reaction and being extremely serious is gold

 

[Bender]

I get the call, it's the correct call, but it's not the right call there.
Now had Wedgewood stripped off his helmet....

This is some pretty high level insight.

The spirit of the game is to out score your opponent, it’s well within the opposing teams rights to do so.

Ok...that's what we did then.

 

[a mangy Meowth]

The spirit of the game is to out score your opponent, it’s well within the opposing teams rights to do so.

Don't be ridiculous

 

[pekka55]

And this is why the NHL rulebook is a joke. Filled with grey area subjective crap like this leading to life long followers of the game and players of it not even understanding calls at times.

Once again I advocate for NHL rulebook reform. Make it black and white. Take Ref discretion out of it as much as you can. The players and coaches will adjust. And they’ll adjust faster when the rules make sense.

Yeah, makes no sense that refs can pick and choose which rules they'll follow and which they won't. On top of that players and coaches can't even call out bad refs, because then they'll get fined.

IMO they should always stop the play if a goalie gets hurt.

 

[Fledgemyhedge]

I would call the goal the same as the ref even in hindsight as the rule is written but f*** man that just doesn’t look right to watch kind of embarassing

 

[Mike C]

View attachment 955293
Either way it's not in the spirit of the game to score an empty net goal while the goalie is injured

It's a business where the object is to wind up with more points than the other guy. Anytime people are paid to play, the word "game" takes on new meaning. It's like a boxer who keeps pummeling his opponent until the ref stops the fight. I'm with Herm Edwards

You play the game to win

 

[FoxyClean]

186 replies to this thread and not a single person realizes what’s actually happening? They’re not mad about Benson potentially being at fault for the injury, they’re mad because he cellies like he just scored an overtime goal in the World Juniors or something; meanwhile, he just scored on an empty net with an injured goalie writhing in pain.

 

[a mangy Meowth]

186 replies to this thread and not a single person realizes what’s actually happening? They’re not mad about Benson potentially being at fault for the injury, they’re mad because he cellies like he just scored an overtime goal in the World Juniors or something; meanwhile, he just scored on an empty net with an injured goalie writhing in pain.

Hey, I'll have you know that I said this very thing several pages ago. I think folks in here are more interested in litigating the rule in question though.

 

[BB79]

186 replies to this thread and not a single person realizes what’s actually happening? They’re not mad about Benson potentially being at fault for the injury, they’re mad because he cellies like he just scored an overtime goal in the World Juniors or something; meanwhile, he just scored on an empty net with an injured goalie writhing in pain.

Mad about a dumb celly instead of your goalie being injured? Those are some great priorities.. but I think it's probably both, the celly was just the salt in the wound. Like the empty net slapshot last season

 

[a mangy Meowth]

Mad about a dumb celly instead of your goalie being injured? Those are some great priorities.. but I think it's probably both, the celly was just the salt in the wound. Like the empty net slapshot last season

What a fascinating interpretation of what was going on

 

[State of Hockey]

Has this forum turned into the NHL-Defenders Boards? That's one the worst examples of official's malpractice I've seen. Clearly the play should have blown dead. It's obvious the player is hurt and in harm's way. It's even incidental goalie interference! Benson's spin in the crease is ultimately why he fell into Wedgewood. He got pushed, yes, but he doesn't fall into him without the untimely spin move. Sweet justice that Colorado won the game. No wonder sports in general have fewer and fewer eyes watching them. They aren't credible to so many people. Plays like this reinforce it.

 

[FoxyClean]

Mad about a dumb celly instead of your goalie being injured? Those are some great priorities.. but I think it's probably both, the celly was just the salt in the wound. Like the empty net slapshot last season

4/5 of the Avs on the ice weren’t even aware the goalie was hurt. But then when you realize it and the guy celebrates and yells “woohoo,” if I was on the Avs, I would’ve probably tried to 2-hand chop him just for that.

 

[Mike C]

Yes. Goalies sit in the back of the net and cry for 7 seconds while the puck goes to the corner all the time. You’re hilarious.

Yeah. It's called the Shesterkin flop

 

[TheNumber4]

Yeah, makes no sense that refs can pick and choose which rules they'll follow and which they won't. On top of that players and coaches can't even call out bad refs, because then they'll get fined.

IMO they should always stop the play if a goalie gets hurt.

The prime example of this is cross checks. Which in the rule books is determined on the refs interpretation of what is “forceful.” It’s not just the stick between two hands being used to check someone, that would be too simple and make too much sense.

For years this league was lumber heavy with cross checks flying all over the place. The Habs miracle run to the Cup finals was on the backs of letting spine crunching cross checks go.

Then the League had a special off season meeting. And the standard for what is a cross check went magically down with NO changes to the actual rulebook.

Nothing changed in the word of the law. Only the unwritten but spoken league directive from that meeting to start calling them more.

Why is the League so lazy to just better define their rules. And take the whole referee guessing game out of it. Define what a cross push is (which should be allowed). And define what a cross check is (which shouldn’t be allowed). They ARE two different things by the way, but I’ve spoken to fans that have no idea. There should be no spectrum judgment on the amount of “force” involved in a cross check at all.

 

[Mike C]

This is a perfect stupid play. You have a goalie rolling around in pain. You have Benson score a gimme goal and celebrates a bit too hard. You have an Avs player try and chase him down only to get hit.

Obviously hopefully Wedgewood is okay, but it is otherwise a pretty damn comical series of events

Right on, Benson could have fixed all this. He should have rushed right over and said "you OK pookie?" then instructed his goalie to let the next one in to even things up.

 

[BB79]

What a fascinating interpretation of what was going on

I know, it must be shocking hearing something from a different point of view for a change. You'll be ok. Just turn off the Altitude

 

[BB79]

4/5 of the Avs on the ice weren’t even aware the goalie was hurt. But then when you realize it and the guy celebrates and yells “woohoo,” if I was on the Avs, I would’ve probably tried to 2-hand chop him just for that.

What happened to just dropping the gloves and settling differences? Not 1 glove on the ice in the scrum, not one fight afterwards in the game. 20 years ago there would be a line brawl, blood on the ice, decide the game and move on. Instead things boil to a point where we get 2 hand chops, illegal hits and suspensions. Exactly what's wrong with the NHL today.

 

[Finlandia WOAT]

You either have refs blowing plays dead for injury, in which case you get players faking injuries to get stoppages.

Or you have refs blow plays dead for injuries only if the injured players' team has possession, in which case you get this, probably the most egregious example.

For better or worse, the NHL has gone with the former.

 

[account deactivated]

It sucks, but this isn't a new thing. Hell, when a similar thing happened to the Stars, they didn't even push a player into Bishop, he just took a blast to the helmet from Parayko or some other dman on the Blues, IIRC. If they didn't care in that scenario in the playoffs, they ain't gonna care about this one in the regular season.

At least the Avs won, so who cares.

 

[rumrokh]

Nope.

Devon Toews, who knows more hockey than you do.

“I disagree with it. When a smaller guy cuts underneath a bigger guy… your edges are gonna go - it’s just physics. A bigger guy's gonna knock over a shorter guy in that situation. Unfortunately, it goes right into our goalie and they don't see it the same way… I still disagree with it.I think most of us do in here. I don't think Kelly was at fault really for anything that he did there. He doesn't really have a choice but to engage with that guy when he cuts under him. We hope [Wedgewood] is alright and we'll move on from it.”

I don't have a side in some bigger argument, but this is obviously a big gray area. Players choose how they engage opponents for their own and their opponent's safety all the time. If you can control how you check a player who has the puck, you can absolutely control how you battle with a player who does not have the puck. We see it on pretty much every play.

That doesn't mean you have to be clairvoyant and anticipate all possible outcomes, but we rarely see defenders push players into their own goalies when the puck is elsewhere. And that's because players do have a choice and exercise that choice. I'm not blaming anybody, though, especially because I think bad luck had a lot to do with it.

 

[Hire Sather]

Avs booth acting like Wedge was attacked in his crease with a steel chair

 

[a mangy Meowth]

Avs booth acting like Wedge was attacked in his crease with a steel chair

Benson is roughly the size of a steel folding chair, makes sense

 

[S E P H]

Kelly knocked him into Wedgewood. Refs don't have to blow the whistle for that type of injury. Sucks but its a good goal.

This game in general has been really gross though.

Yes, there is contact between the two, not doubting that, but I am not sure if that was enough to push Benson on his toosh, crushing Wedgewood's ankle. If Zach legitimately went down there, which I am not saying he embellished at all, he needs to hit the gym and put on 40 lbs because that was ridiculously soft contact.

 

[S E P H]

Refs have the discretion to allow the play to unfold, Avs have the discretion to challenge the play.

Did they?

Yes, but the funny aspect is that Bednar came out postgame and said he challenged knowing they would lose just to say F U to the refs lol.