This.
To those who disagree with me:
I guess we will have agree to disagree on the interpretation of a "slash". To me it is as simple as this:
Crosby did not "slash" at the goalie and then shot it in....instead Crosby tried to shoot the puck, initially missed and instead made contact with the goalie and then shot it in. He was tying to shoot the puck all the way. There's a difference.
Think of it this way: If the puck is laying on the goal line and both the goalie and the player stretch and dive forward with their sticks - one is trying to poke it in, the other (goalie) is trying to knock it away - is it goalie interference if the players stick "interferes" or blocks with the goalie's poke at the puck? No it is not. This was a crease scramble and the player intent was to shoot the puck. What little contact was made was not enough to constitute goalie interference. We'll agree to disagree.
Thats a somewhat bad analogy in this case. How about this:
The keeper is going to blocker the puck into the corner on a soft waist high floater but a forward slashes hit arm trying to bat it in as he is making the save, dropping the puck into the crease, and then the puck is subsequently shot in the net a couple seconds later by the same player who slashed him.
I'm eliminating the whole whistle thing and puck on top of the keeper to clean up the first part. If you can imagine the refs allowing this goal every time, I'm not sure which league you have been watching the last few years.
The only solid ground I think you are standing on is that all of this the ref believes that the arm contact did not affect the play but if that is the case I think Crosby just got lucky with a ref that wanted to fight for him on this. From what I have seen, most other Zebras would have called this off.
Its a little scary that video reviews have made things worse instead of better. I think the officials should regroup in the off season and look over many of these goals to try find a more consistent approach.
This play could happen exactly the same way tonight and be called completely differently.....and thats a problem.
I mean, I really dont think Pens fans would be up in arms if it was waived off last night. He slashed him while he was trying to make the save. These things always get called off right?