Elliotte Friedman calls out the NHL over a brutal call.
The well respected NHL insider challenged the NHL to do a better job of clarifying their calls.
It seems like this particular controversy may not be going away for the National Hockey League.
If you tuned into the NHL games over the weekend you're probably aware of the fact that this wasn't a great weekend when it comes to fan confidence in the league's officiating. There were a number of questionable calls over the weekend and the NHL has, rightfully, taken a fair bit of criticism over the weekend as a result.
It's not just the fans complaining either. During the NHL broadcast on Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday night, the league was publicly called out by former players Kelly Hrudey and Kevin Bieksa and, during his most recent podcast, NHL insider Elliotte Friedman has now also joined the chorus of dissenting voices.
Friedman began by expressing his sheer disbelief at a controversial call that resulted in a disallowed goal for Toronto Maple Leafs forward Tyler Bertuzzi.
"Watching it with one eye I kind of of was like 'Eh maybe Nylander didn't get out of the way' but then when I really looked at it I was like "No, no, no, no that's a goal,'" admitted Friedman on the 32 Thoughts Podcast.
Friedman believes that the league needs to introduce a video review explanation, much in the way the Department of Player Safety does for suspensions, to explain some of these controversial calls that seemingly no one understands.
"I actually do think that they should prepare a video and put it out there," said Friedman. "Because from now on, for the rest of this year, that video is going to be used at something that didn't count.
"I absolutely think they should put out a video and say 'This is why we didn't count this goal.'"
The NHL has notoriously failed to hold its officials accountable for bad calls so, while I would love to see videos of this nature released by the league, I doubt very much the NHL will take Friedman's suggestion seriously.
