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.
The play started after Trevor van Riemsdyk sent a pass to Anthony Beauvillier, camped out in the right circle. Beauvillier’s 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’s five-hole and stopped on the goal line uncovered.
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.
Officials eventually reviewed the play with the Situation Room in Toronto. And after a short discussion, the play was confirmed to be “no goal” because there was no continuation, since the initial shot stopped on the goal line, and, per the NHL, “The Referee informed the Situation Room he blew his whistle to stop play before the puck entered the Toronto net.”
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 — a game the Capitals were dominating analytics wise.
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.
“You robbed me of an assist there, Kelly,” TVR appears to tell Sutherland.
“I know I did, I owe you one somewhere,” Sutherland, if I heard correctly, responds.
The Capitals seemed to reference the moment postgame with this tweet.
After the comments, the Capitals ended up getting two consecutive power plays at the start of the second period with Morgan Rielly — the Leafs’ first goal-scorer of the night — 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.
Referees evening up calls between two teams they are officiating is a well-known, unwritten rule in the NHL. However, it’s seriously frowned upon when discussed openly. For example, former referee Tim Peel was fired by the league in 2021 after he was caught on a hot mic saying he wanted to call an early second-period penalty on the Nashville Predators.
“Nothing is more important than ensuring the integrity of our game,” NHL senior executive vice president Colin Campbell said then. “Tim Peel’s conduct is in direct contradiction to the adherence to that cornerstone principle that we demand of our officials and that our fans, players, coaches, and all those associated with our game expect and deserve.”
Peel was due to retire after the season and had been an on-ice official since October 1999.
