Trainee responsible for botched goal ruling during Blue Jackets-Hurricanes game

A very weird situation happened during the Columbus Blue Jackets and Carolina Hurricanes game yesterday afternoon, after a goal that was scored against Columbus should have been reversed was still counted, despite a coach's challenge from John Tortorella.

The NHL came out today stating that an off-ice official-in-training was responsible for the miscommunication that led to the Hurricanes goal, scored by Vincent Trocheck, incorrectly counting. At the time, the NHL was still reviewing the play when things suddenly went wrong.

«The video technician is just supposed to coordinate this upstairs (at press level),» said NHL executive vice president and director of operations Colin Campbell when speaking to The Athletic's Aaron Portzline. «They're not supposed to get involved. They're just supposed to set up things. We do the communicating with the (officials)."

«We sent the first video (clip) for the linesmen to review – we're looking at them, too, in Toronto – and we hear a voice on the line say, 'He's onside. That's a good goal.' He said it twice. The linesmen (Jonny Murray and Tyson Baker) heard that, took off the headsets and stepped away so they could make the call.»

Campbell said that by the time they tried to get the referees back on their headsets, it was already too late. Realizing what they had done, he called Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen and apologized for the major error, but ultimately said the call could not be changed because the league had not previously done so in similar situations.

«We were talking in the referee's room (during the second intermission) with (NHL official Chris) Rooney. I told him I'd like to take the goal back, but we've never had a situation where we've taken a goal back after play had resumed like that.

«I told Jarmo I wished we could strike the goal, but there's no precedent for that,» Campbell said.

Campbell also went on to explain that while it was a major error by the video coordinator, the individual feels horrible about the mistake. That likely won't make the Blue Jackets feel any better however, as they were robbed of at least one point in a season where every point matters more than ever before.

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