Confusion 

By Mike Rifkin

The Oilers won game six of the Stanley Cup Final 5-1 to force a game seven on Monday night. People will look at the score and say the game wasn’t competitive, but it was and there was a turning point. 

Quickly after the Oilers took a 2-0 lead early in the second period, the Panthers responded with a goal by captain Aleksander Barkov to make it 2-1, but the Oilers challenged the play for offsides and got the goal overturned. Dave Jackson, who is the ESPN NHL rules analyst said that the play was close and he didn’t know if they’d overturn it (they did). But something else he said got to me and it was that the Situation Room can blow up or enhance the photo showing if the play was indeed offside, but here’s my question if the situation room can blow it up and enhance the image how come they can’t show that to the fans? 

Now I have always hated the challenge system in the NHL for a few reasons. You can challenge for three things : A missed stoppage, Goalie Interference or Offside. Goalie Interference stinks because at this point they’re just guessing at this point and have no idea. On offside we’re talking about an inch not the fact that Sam Reinhart was three feet offside on this particular play. But here’s the thing as a fan yes we want the calls to be right and accurate, but we should get the same shots the situation room does. Now the purpose of instant replay in sports was to get calls right, but if the fans are talking about it on social media, at a bar or in the arena itself you have to help them understand. Anyway if the Oilers comeback from 3-0 in this series Panther fans will look at this play and go we had a chance in game six if it wasn’t taken away from them.