Short handed goal called back after extremely controversial call from NHL officials.

What a call.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 5 years ago
Short handed goal called back after extremely controversial call from NHL officials.
Keystone Press

I may have never seen the Montreal Canadiens so animated. 

There was one hell of a call on Saturday night during the match up between the aforementioned Habs and the Ottawa Senators and although you can certainly see what the National Hockey League officials may have been looking at when they made their call, this is going to be a very tough pill for the fans in Montreal to swallow.

The incident occurred with roughly 3 and a half minutes gone in the 3rd period and occurred when 23 year old Habs forward Artturi Lehkonen appeared to have scored something of a heroic goal while being dragged down to the ice by Ottawa Senators defensewman Thomas Chabot. In spite of what was clearly a hook from Chabot, one that was deep enough that it caused Artturi Lehkonen to lose his balance, the young Habs forward somehow managed to get enough on the puck and get it past Ottawa Senators goaltender Mike McKenna.

Now to make this all the more impressive it was a short handed rush from Lehkonen that created the entire play, which means that not only was he on the verge of giving his team a short handed goal, but he had done so while drawing a penalty that would admittedly have been wiped out by the goal itself. Unfortunately for the Canadiens none of it would matter due to the frankly terrible call that the officials on the ice were about to make. 

The officials would wipe out both the penalty on Chabot as well as the goal by Lehkonen all by calling the Habs forward for what the officials perceived to be a dive on the hooking call. That is to say that they called the hooking on Chabot, but offset it with the diving or embellishment penalty for Lehkonen, a ruling that would wipe out his short handed goal. I must admit I personally thought this was somewhat of a bogus call but thankfully you can watch the video below and judge for yourself.

One thing is certain, head coach Claude Julien and the rest of his Montreal Canadiens were clearly not in agreement with the NHL's officials this time around.

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