By Brad Lee
With 6 minutes, 20 seconds left in the first period of last night's Blues game in Chicago, Jason Williams took a long shot that sailed over the head of Manny Legace. The puck bounced and landed on top of the goal. As players converged from all sides, the puck was still moving on top of the net towards the goal mouth. What happens next was decided by replay but will be debated endlessly... or at least until the Blues instead play a really good team like the Minnesota Wild on Saturday night.
Rookie Jonathon Toews tried to put the blade of his stick under the puck as it approached the cross bar. He may have nudged it forward or he may have missed. Either way, the puck bounced, hit Legace in the head, landed on his shoulder (see above) and crossed the goal line.
The officials did not see the puck cross the line and didn't stop play. During the next stoppage, more than a minute later, the off-ice officials called for a review. They couldn't make a decision and asked the league office in Toronto to make the call.
The replay took damn near 10 minutes. Players left both benches to skate in circles in an effort to stay loose while the replay dragged on. The officials decided that Toews did not in fact touch the puck and the goal was counted. And then they did something moronic and awarded the goal momentarily to Toews -- who couldn't have touched the puck legally for the goal to count. Williams was eventually awarded the "goal."
In the comments of the live blog last night, one commenter saidd that after rewinding and watching in slow motion, he believed Toews touched the puck. When FSN zoomed in on the replay, they highlighted the puck crossing the line and didn't even zoom in on Toews' stick and whether or not it touched the puck. With all that drama, here's how the brilliant Associated Press writer summed the incident up:
Jason Williams scored Chicago's lone goal, a fluke power-play score that stood up to a video review...
Williams' power-play goal made it 2-1 with 6:20 left in the period. His shot bounced off the back boards and landed on top of the St. Louis net. The puck rolled back over the crossbar and crossed the goal line before Legace knocked it out.
The unnamed reporter really painted the scene well, don't you think?
In the aftermath and the afterglow of another dominating Blues win, the goal controversy is all just a fun foot note. But what say you fine readers of Game Time? Was it a goal? Leave your thoughts in the comments.