Jaromir Jagr watches the play from the side boards. (click to enlarge)Jaromir Jagr even showed some life tonight. The Great Uninspired One potted two goals and nearly netted a hat trick, but the undeniable star of the game was Scott Gomez. His unrelenting back-checking and impressive speed were fundamental in Carolina’s downfall. Dan Girardi and Chris Drury scored as well to cement the most satisfying Ranger game in recent memory.
Sean Avery injected life into the game and got the Garden crowd behind him with well-executed checks and his abrasive style. When fingered for an interference call he most certainly deserved, he and Andrew Ladd came together in a scrum and would have had a fight if the linesmen hadn’t so insistently tried (and failed) to prevent any fisticuffs.
The linesman handling Avery failed to keep him away from the unimpeded Ladd. The Ranger forward landed a right to Ladd’s face on a swing he took over the linesman restraining him. Then the other linesman came into the fray, as did one of the officials, and all the while Avery is punching at Ladd in a display that saw both players ejected. Each was given a 10-minute misconduct and a roughing minor but, had they simply been allowed to fight, five minutes each would have been plenty.
Is there a policy to curb fighting? Was there a good reason to prevent two willing players from settling their gripe man to man? Add to the debacles in penalty calls the sheer travesty of the play being whistled dead while the puck was still loose — Avery slammed the puck home but the goal was waved off — and the officiating couldn’t pass muster with a generous handicap.
There is no reason why video replay can’t be used to overturn bad calls by the referees. I don’t understand why the on-ice official’s verdict is final in waving off goals, but not when it comes to granting them. A ref can allow a goal and then have the call overturned upon review by Toronto … why can’t the reverse be true? Any replay would show that Cam Ward never had the puck and that Avery’s goal would have counted had the ref not lost sight of the biscuit. Everyone realized the whistle was blown too soon (I’ve played in games where this has happened, without the benefit of review, and the refs often apologize profusely for having been hasty though the goals are never granted) … so why can’t the mistake be remedied through the magic of video tape?
In this case, it’s fortunate the Rangers didn’t need the goal, but what if they had? I don’t think any club should be disallowed a goal due to obvious human error, especially when — in the form of instant replay — there’s a means of preventing the results of those errors. Had Carolina scored such a goal and had it disallowed, I may be glad as a Ranger fan, but I would still believe it was a lucky break that the opposing team was robbed of a goal they undeniably deserved.
It’s great to see a result like this, but it’s hard for it to dispel any doubts raised by the Rangers’ skid. Until games like tonight’s become far more commonplace than their uninspired losses, Ranger fans ought to curb any dreams of hoisting Lord Stanley’s Cup.