The Washington Capitals were robbed of a goal 21 seconds into their 4-2 victory against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Friday. And official Kelly Sutherland appeared to regret his part in the mix-up.<\/p>\n
The play started after Trevor van Riemsdyk sent a pass to Anthony Beauvillier, camped out in the right circle. Beauvillier\u2019s initial backhanded shot was stopped by goaltender Joseph Woll, but the Caps forward found the rebound. He then sent a shot on his forehand that trickled through Woll\u2019s five-hole and stopped on the goal line uncovered.<\/p>\n
As Sutherland lost sight of the puck, he whistled the play dead. Strome then backhanded the biscuit home, lighting the lamp. Sutherland immediately waved the goal off because he had blown the play dead a second earlier.<\/p>\n
Officials eventually reviewed the play with the Situation Room in Toronto. And after a short discussion, the play was confirmed to be \u201cno goal\u201d because there was no continuation, since the initial shot stopped on the goal line, and, per the NHL<\/a>, \u201cThe Referee informed the Situation Room he blew his whistle to stop play before the puck entered the Toronto net.\u201d<\/p>\n While the whistle came at the wrong time, the call was ultimately correct, but it did affect the game. The Leafs ultimately jumped out to a 2-0 lead after getting goals from Morgan Rielly and Matthew Knies \u2014 a game the Capitals were dominating analytics wise.<\/p>\n Sutherland appeared to regret the early whistle and discussed the blown call with TVR as the Capitals looked to break out of their own zone with 12:06 remaining in the first period.<\/p>\n \u201cYou robbed me of an assist there, Kelly,\u201d TVR appears to tell Sutherland.<\/p>\n \u201cI know I did, I owe you one somewhere,\u201d Sutherland, if I heard correctly, responds.<\/p>\n The Capitals seemed to reference the moment postgame with this tweet.<\/p>\n After the comments, the Capitals ended up getting two consecutive power plays at the start of the second period with Morgan Rielly \u2014 the Leafs\u2019 first goal-scorer of the night \u2014 going to the box 41 seconds in for slashing Dylan Strome. Auston Matthews then got a hooking call on Ryan Leonard 4:31 into the period. The Leafs got no power plays on the evening.<\/p>\n Referees evening up calls between two teams they are officiating is a well-known, unwritten rule in the NHL. However, it\u2019s seriously frowned upon when discussed openly. For example, former referee Tim Peel was fired by the league in 2021<\/a> after he was caught on a hot mic saying he wanted to call an early second-period penalty on the Nashville Predators.<\/p>\n