Morning After: Red Wings vs. Blue Jackets

We know that refs aren’t perfect.  Calls get missed and bad calls are made.  However, I have a serious issue with what the officials from last night’s Red Wings/Blue Jackets matchup told Detroit captain Henrik Zetterberg after the game, when a slash from Brandon Dubinsky broke Zetterberg’s stick and directly led to Seth Jones’ game-winning goal in overtime.

Zetterberg said he was told it wasn’t a penalty by officials

— Helene St. James (@HeleneStJames) February 8, 2017

They saw it. They just deemed it to not be a penalty.

For reference, here’s the play:

¯_(?)_/¯ pic.twitter.com/YA28vjGJnm

— Winging It In Motown (@wingingitmotown) February 8, 2017

And, for comparison’s sake, here’s a stick-breaking slash that was called a penalty in the Montreal/Colorado game last night:

Haha check out this play that earned Tomas Plekanec a slashing penalty to put MTL down by two men. #hmmm pic.twitter.com/PwhX1K7Ajf

— Winging It In Motown (@wingingitmotown) February 8, 2017

I’ve ranted before about refs being treated as infallible. It’s simply not true and we’ve got video proof of that from last night.

Either the slash in the Detroit/Columbus game was correctly called – no penalty because doing that is not a penalty, or the slash in the Canadiens/Avalanche game was correctly called – breaking the stick with a slash is a penalty, or the slash on Zetterberg was simply missed – in which case the ref was covering his ass by saying what happened wasn’t a penalty.

My guess is that the last one occurred. And that happens. I’d feel a lot better, though, if the refs owned up to it.