The goal that wasn’t in the Maple Leafs’ season-ending loss to the Florida Panthers on Friday night may go down as one of the most haunting moments in Toronto sports history.
It also raises the question of whether the NHL should revisit puck-tracking technology to help game officials make the right call, especially when the season is on the line.
Leafs defenceman Morgan Rielly scored what appeared to be a game-tying goal late in the second period of Game 5, with the puck lodged in Florida goalie Sergei Bobrovsky’s pads along the goal line. A replay showed it crossed the line, but referee Jean Hebert ruled the play was dead before then, despite not having blown the whistle.
The play was reviewed for about 10 minutes at the NHL’s Toronto command centre. In the end, it was ruled no goal. NHL rules allow referees to deem a play dead when the puck is out of their sight, with or without a whistle.
The decision — followed by angry reaction from fans who littered the Scotiabank Arena ice with debris — brought back memories of Game 6 of the 1993 conference final between the Leafs and Los Angeles Kings.
Referee Kerry Fraser made no call when Wayne Gretzky’s high stick to Doug Gilmour’s face drew blood. Gretzky would have received a five-minute major penalty under the rules, and Fraser later said he would like to have that one back. Gretzky went on to score the overtime winner moments later, forcing a Game 7 that the Kings won to advance to the Stanley Cup final against the Montreal Canadiens.
Leafs great Wendel Clark played in that series and said the two non-calls are comparable from a player’s perspective, but added that playoff intensity doesn’t allow for time to dwell on it.
“I can tell you as a player, you’re in the middle of a battle and you’re not thinking about what everyone is going to say about it,” Clark said. “You’re not worried about anything else but what’s going on at that moment.”
The NHL has tried puck-tracking technology in the past, but abandoned it in 2021 after complaints about how the embedded pucks slid on the ice.
Other sports, including tennis and soccer, have moved toward using technology to make more calls, while baseball has been experimenting with an electronic strike zone in the minor leagues — with mixed results.
Compounding the Leafs’ dismay on Friday was another non-call in overtime, when Panthers defenceman Radko Gudas grabbed the stick of the Leafs’ Calle Järnkrok undetected, while Florida’s Nick Cousins scored the series-winning goal. Publicly, the Leafs shrugged off the controversy.
“It happens,” Rielly said of his disallowed goal, which would have been his second of the game. “They reviewed it. It is what it is.”
Coach Sheldon Keefe and several other Leafs made similar comments. Clark said that was the correct approach.
“That’s life,” said Clark, who scored 37 goals in 95 NHL playoff games. “It wasn’t meant to be.”
Friday’s game was played four years to the day after another memorable Toronto sports moment in the same arena — one with a happier ending. On May 12, 2019, Kawhi Leonard’s buzzer-beating four-bounce bucket for the Raptors eliminated the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 7 of their Eastern Conference semifinal.
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