I will stand up for Tomas, though; penalty or not, he was doing his job–working hard around the net. He’s tasked with playing a game of unique precision in the most chaotic area of the rink, and does it better than anyone. So it really wasn’t stupid per se, in my eyes, Holmstrom’s use of his stick on that play–rather just the result of a little overzealousness. And I’d much rather see him play with a little too much zeal there than not enough. He knows, and Babcock knows, that it’s a risk assessment to do it, but more times than not it pays off for the Wings. His high-sticking penalty is another story–that was pretty stupid, but I digress.

Ultimately, if this was the regular season, I’d have been fine either way with the call that was made; in the post-season, however, and in the Finals in particular, it’d be nice, like Matt suggested in his pre-game write up, to just let the guys play unless a play is truly deserving of a penalty. But if officials are going to make those borderline calls, then just do it consistently, at both ends of the rink. That’s all we fans really want, because there just seems to be too much coin-flipping involved these days when it comes to the goalie interference rules.

Obviously the level of interference was marginal at best. I was merely trying to point out how the official saw it.

As for my agreeing with the call, I happen to think there’s no excuse for Holmstrom to have his stick on Fleury at that point, but that’s just me. I’m not going to pretend that he never does anything wrong and that I don’t think he did something stupid there.

Here’s one thing I look at to determine whether a goalie was really interfered with or not: the goalie’s reaction after the goal is scored. Because every single time a goalie was TRULY interfered with, he will react angrily and start yelling and gesturing towards the referee.

Cases in point:

Game 1 of WCF vs. Dallas - Right after the Holmstrom goal that could’ve been legitimately waved off, Turco was angry and immediately turned towards the referee and complained.

Game 4 of WCF - After Datsyuk scored WITHOUT Holmstrom interfering, Turco looked like a goalie who knew he had been beat. He was calm and made no actions towards the ref.

Now look at Fleury after the Lidstrom shot went in. He simply reacts the same way he would to any other goal - he looks down in disappointment, composes himself, then gets up for a drink from his bottle. No anger, no frustration, no annoyance, and no immediate demands towards the official that the goal be waved off. Because he WASN’T interfered with at all, and had been beat cleanly.

Looks like the Board of govs voted to NOT look at this issue this summer, but they are at least thinking about allowing a coaches challenge. Seems like a good middle ground to me.

I was just trying to point out how the official saw it. It’s an interpretation I happen to agree with, yes, but others are free to have their own interpretations.

To me, it’s just not black-and-white like the waived off goal in the Stars series. Unlike that time, there was contact. It’s just a matter of how it was interpreted.

Obviously, the interpretation the official made was based on Holmstrom’s reputation more than anything else. That is a problem and one that bothers me a lot as a Wings fan. But this was one instance where there seemed to me to be at least a grain of truth in the standard accusation against Holmstrom.

Again, others are free to have their own interpretations of the play. I for one happened to agree with the call on the ice.

As you say, however, it didn’t matter in the end and I am glad for that.