Chicago Blackhawks: Caggiula’s no goal reminds fans of 2013

Last night the Chicago Blackhawks had a reffing mistake that drastically changed the outcome of the game. This reminded me of an issue that occurred in 2013.

Drake Caggiula took the puck up ice and fired a great shot against two defenders that flew in the net past goaltender Jaroslav Halak. With under two minutes to go in the game Caggiula’s goal was set up to be the game-winner, except it wasn’t. The referees called the playback thanks to a handpass by Olli Maatta that gave Caggiula the puck.

However, a video review showed that Caggiula got the puck cleanly from Olli Maatta, without any hands being the last thing to touch the puck. Now if I am going to be honest if I was the referee in real-time watching that game I too probably would have called that a handpass, but that does not mean you blow the whistle to call the play dead. The refs should have kept the play alive to let a review decide if it was a hand pass.

This reminds me of the 2013 playoff series against the Detroit Redwings. The Chicago Blackhawks thought they took the lead with not much time in the third period of game 7 thanks to a Niklas Hjalmarsson goal. Unfortunately for the Blackhawks, the play was called back thanks to a delayed penalty. The play caused chaos across the entire United Center.

At the end of the day the Blackhawks did end up getting a point against the Boston Bruins, the team they would go on to beat in the playoffs in 2013. While I do not like seeing mistakes like this made at the NHL level I do think it is a part of the game.

I don’t know about you but I would rather have what happened last night happen in the regular season than in a game 7 of the Stanley Cup playoffs. While Chicago could have used the extra point last night at least we got one!

I hope you enjoyed this little trip down memory lane. I remember how angry I was when this play occurred and Hjalmarsson’s goal was called off. Luckily it all worked out in the end though!