NHL to Award the Colorado Avalanche a “Loser Point”

The NHL has finally come to its senses and decided to award the Colorado Avalanche an overtime loss point because of a mistake the league made.

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The Colorado Avalanche are in a hotly contested playoff race. Right now they sit just outside the playoff bracket. They have equal the points to the St. Louis Blues, but the Blues occupy the final wild card berth.

To get to that determination, the NHL uses a tie-breaker system. The first tie-breaker is number of games played. The two teams have both played 78. The second ti-breaker is regulation/overtime wins, ROWs. Colorado and St. Louis have the same amount of those, too.

The third tie-breaker, and the reason the Blues are occupying that spot, is record against each other. The Avalanche have gone 3-1 against the Blues this season. They do have one more game against each other, but even a win from the Avalanche doesn’t change the tie-breaker.

Disallowed Goal

On October 19, 2017, the Colorado Avalanche hosted the St. Louis Blues. The Avs hadn’t found their home mojo yet, and Nathan MacKinnon hadn’t gotten into his stride yet. So, this was a game that saw rookie Alexander Kerfoot score first but the Blues scored three in the second period.

The third period was a wild one. Blake Comeau cut the Avalanche’s deficit to one, but then Blues skater Robert Bortuzzo scored a few minutes later to put St. Louis up 4-2 at the midway mark. Kerfoot came through again, but it looked like it just wasn’t going to be the Avs’ night.

Then this happened:

With just two-and-a-half minutes left in the game, Colorado ties it!

Unfortunately, Blues coach Mike Yeo issued a Coach’s Challenge. It was the new Offsides Challenge rule, and a ruling against him should have resulted in a minor penalty on the Blues.

Admittedly, Sven Andrighetto was initially offsides. However, when the official failed to blow the play dead, he pulled the puck back out of the zone. When he re-entered, the play was onsides. It was from that entry that Mikko Rantanen scored the game-tying goal.

Per the Coach’s Challenge rule, the challenge can only come into play if the entry play is offsides, meaning in this case the one that eventually led to Rantanen’s goal. Unfortunately, the officials blew that call. They disallowed the goal. Officially, the Avs didn’t tie the game and the Blues didn’t get a penalty. Colorado lost the game.

The next day, the NHL issued a formal apology. Now, it sounds like the Kroenkes are compelling the league to do more.

Point to be Awarded

The Kroenkes have made their way to Toronto recently. Nothing was made of that. However, reports started coming out that the big sports entertainment moguls had also brought some of their high-powered lawyers.

Today, the NHL has released the following statement:

"“St. Louis requested a Coach’s Challenge to determine whether Sven Andrighetto of Colorado was off-side prior to the Avalanche goal. The video review decision determined the play was off-side but that determination was based on a play prior to the puck clearing the zone.“Per Rule 78. 7 (Note 1) Coach’s Challenge: ‘Goals will only be reviewed for a potential “Off-Side” infraction if: a) the puck does not come out of the attacking zone again; or (b) all members of the attacking team do not clear the attacking zone again, between the time of the “Off-Side” play and the time the goal is scored.“Although there was an off-side, it occurred prior to the puck clearing the zone which nullifies any goal review related to that off-side. The entry in to the zone immediately prior to the goal was on-side, therefore the goal should have counted.”"

When reporters pointed out that this was the exact statement they’d issued the day after the game, the NHL added the following addendum:

"“The league has decided to award an overtime loss point to the Colorado Avalanche. “"

The Kroenkes immediately released the following statement:

"“Now that the NHL has done the right thing by our team, we’re going to start a special pre-sale for playoff tickets. There will also be watch parties at Pepsi Center for a nominal entry fee!”"

It always comes down to money, doesn’t it? But that extra point would put Colorado into a playoff berth without any need of tie-breakers.

Related Story: New Fees at Pepsi Center

So… if you run to look at the standings, you see… nothing has changed. Alas, this is April 1st.

Happy April Fool’s Day, Avs Nation. However, I think we all agree the NHL should award the point to the Colorado Avalanche.

Note: The tie-breakers named above are true. The fourth tie-breaker is overall goal-differential, which the Avalanche would win.