Yes, it happened. And yes, it should have been called goalie interference.
However, to blame the referees, the NHL and whoever else they can think of for losing game 2 is only going to create more of a circus and take the focus off what is important – winning game 3.
The fact is, the goal Dwight King tipped in while battling with Ryan McDonagh in Henrik Lundqvist‘s crease wasn’t the tying goal, nor was it the go-ahead goal. The Rangers had a two goal lead on 3 occasions in game 2, and couldn’t hold onto any of them.
Lundqvist was obviously irate at the time, and rightly so. But even a day later, that goal was the story and seemed to be the focus of the Rangers and that could prove to be their final undoing.
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As I have written before with regard to the Senators, blaming the officials for a team’s loss is a cop-out and doesn’t serve any positive purpose. The Rangers are now in an 0-2 hole because they couldn’t hold multiple leads, regardless of how it happened. There is no conspiracy, it was a blown call, simple as that. Move on and re-focus. I am not saying the goal took Henrik Lundqvist’s focus away for the rest of the third period, but the fact is they still had a lead when the King goal was scored to make it 4-3, and Lundqvist is veteran enough to know better than to let it get to him as he seemed to do.
If that play had come in overtime, then perhaps more could be made of it. Officials are human too, and looking at the replay at full speed it is tough to distinguish exactly when the contact occurs between Lundqvist and King, and there is the battle with McDonagh to also take into account.
The Rangers face a daunting task having to beat the Kings in 4 of the next 5 games, a task that will be that much more difficult if the controversy bleeds over to today and the Rangers cannot get solely focused on beating the Kings Monday night.