Law and Order: Did the Nashville Predators commit goaltender interference against the Florida Panthers?

Tuesday night’s game between the Nashville Predators and Florida Panthers saw the game be determined by goaltender interference

Recently, the NHL decided to make some much-needed adjustments to its goalie interference rules. For the rest of the season, there will be someone in Toronto who will be the judge for every review for goaltender interference. It’s not a perfect solution, but it’s better than asking refs to make judgment calls based on what they see on iPads. Tuesday’s game between the Nashville Predators and Florida Panthers provided an early test.

With roughly a second remaining, the Preds thought they scored. Initially, it was ruled a goal. However, it automatically got reviewed (since teams can’t challenge calls towards the end of games). Upon further review, the call on the ice was overturned due to goaltender interference.

Here’s a video of the incident in question.

First off, let’s pour one out for the poor, unfortunate soul (probably an intern) who has to read the mentions for the NHL’s tweet. That’s quite the ratio of replies to retweets and favorites. Whoever’s running the social account on Wednesday morning is going to be shocked.

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Secondly, let’s discuss if this was actually goalie interference. The folks in Toronto ruled that Victor Arvidsson made contact with Panthers goalie Roberto Luongo, which caused the puck to get free. It’s important to note there are two points of contact in this play. The first one was incidental at best, so it’s the second one the league had an issue with.

I feel like the right call was made. And the review is a good thing. It’s hard to be a ref. You have to skate around a lot and you have to be confident in every call you make. Even if you’re not confident at all. You can’t reasonably expect referees to see everything.

Arvidsson clearly makes contact with Luongo. He spins because of the contact. There’s no way a human being could generate enough force to do that from Luongo’s position without some help. Arvidsson, whether he intended to or not, provided it.

You could argue it still wasn’t enough to overturn the call on the ice. And you might be right. There’s also the issue of Keith Yandle, who’s dangerously close to Arvidsson for the entire sequence. Did he inadvertently cause the Predators forward to make contact with Luongo the second time? This angle is far from definitive, but it appears he doesn’t. I’d like to see another angle, though.

Next: 5 Players Who'd Love A Re-Do On The 2018 Season

It’s the popular thing these days to get outraged at every goalie interference call. And there have been some horrible misinterpretations of the rules along the way. But at least for one night, the NHL seems to have goaltender interference right. A goalie was clearly interfered with. The rules were enforced as they were intended to be. Let’s hope this remains true.

Did the Predators get screwed out of a point? Let us know in the comments!