Red Wings believed NHL screwed them vs. Caps

The Detroit Red Wings failed to pick up two points for the sixth straight game last night in the nation's capitol city, dropping a 4-3 overtime decision to the host Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena that saw them blow leads of 2-0 and 3-2 over the course of the evening. 

Despite being outshot, Detroit had the game in control thanks to another strong performance between the pipes from Ville Husso. However, two quick tallies from an unlikely source in Caps forward Nic Dowd in an astonishing 11 seconds quickly knotted the score in the game's middle frame. 

But on Dowd's second goal, Washington's initial dumping of the puck into the offensive zone deflected and appeared to sail out of play into the protective netting behind Detroit's goal. After Dowd tipped a shot from the blue line past Husso, the latter immediately began gesturing to the referee that the puck went out of play. And despite protests from Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde and the rest of the coaching staff, play eventually resumed and the goal stood. 

Afterward, Lalonde was adamant that the NHL's review system for such a scenario was "broken".

"(Husso) said it hit the netting," Lalonde said afterward. "He was adamant it hit the netting. It hit the netting. It's just unfortunate, probably a flaw in the system. Our guys know it hit the netting. Ville's 100% adamant it hit the netting. But they're not giving us a feed. They keep replaying the goal, so it's really frustrating. It's a flawed system. I don't know what we're trying to do here. They kept doing it back and you could see it go over the glass and common sense is it hit the netting. We ran into a situation last year in the playoffs against Florida where you knew it hit the netting but nobody could see it. Ultimately they made the call it hit the netting. It's inconclusive."

"I think even the ref knew it hit the netting," he continued. "That's why he gave us as much time as he did. But it's inconclusive. It is what it is. It's frustrating because it went against us tonight, but the fact that our goalie is adamant it hit the netting, our guys are adamant it hit the netting but we don't get a feed from it? It's a broken system. It is what it is." 

The Red Wings certainly appear to have a case in how these kinds of plays are reviewed.