The Refs Not Calling The Cross Check On Ryan Reaves Looks Worse Every Time I Watch It

I mean…yeah. I’m not much of a ref complainer. I think for the most part fans of teams always think it’s rigged against their own team, and that’s the nature of sports. But missing the above call, which directly led to a pivotal goal, yeah….I agree with Mllbury there, absolutely unforgivable.

The more I watch it, the wilder it gets that they didn’t give Reaves a cross checking penalty there. I like letting the boys play as much as the next guy, but god damn man, the official has to have some sort of pride in his job. You have to at some point call the game correctly, and that, right there, is the time to do it. Milbury made the best possible comparison, to that of a WR pushing down the CB and then catching a wide open touchdown.

WaPo - This is like a receiver in football, pushing down his defensive back in the end zone and catching the touchdown pass by himself. It’s just unforgivable. You’ve got two officials, one you can see right there — make the call. You have to make the call. It’s the turning point in the game. This is just not right at all. If you’re a Washington fan or John Carlson and you think you got bagged, you did. You got sandbagged right here. He’s got every right to be this angry at officials who missed it.”

“I think the refs were too scared to call a penalty on the guy,” analyst Alan May said. “The ref right on the goal line right there, he’s the guy that has to make that call, and in this game, he wasn’t going to do that,” May said of Marc Joannette. “We’ve seen this from him in the past. The Caps have every right to be upset about that. That’s a legitimate penalty in any game, against any player.”

Again, I’m not a blame the ref guy, never have been. But in the Stanley Cup, you have to trust the refs to make the right call, and last night they blew that one. Frustrating, but can’t dwell on it. You just don’t want to see the Cup get decided by refs who think they are above the game. Can’t have that moving forward. Replace the crew and let the games play out on their own.