Basic math skills

Long after Thursday night’s game was decided, there was a lingering bizarre question: how did the Kings NOT score a 5-on-3 goal? Their fourth goal clearly came with one second remaining on the initial penalty, meaning that the Kings should still have been on the power play, for 28 seconds, until the second penalty expired.

Yet, when play resumed after Anze Kopitar’s goal, it was 5-on-5. Why? Nobody seemed to know. It didn’t impact the game’s outcome, of course, but given how awful the Kings have been in 5-on-3 situations, there was something symbolic to being able to count that goal as a 5-on-3 goal. I asked Terry Murray if he got an explanation…

MURRAY: “Yes, I did. There was a mistake made by the off-ice officials. The referees came over, later in the game, and kind of apologized for it. … They called the referees back, after play had resumed, at the next stoppage, and said, `We messed up. There should have been one second left on that penalty.’ But what do you do?”

The answer is that, given that a mistake was made, the official stats will indeed show the goal as a 5-on-3 goal. The 28-second power play that should have existed will not be reflected in the stats.