A second look?

For what it’s worth, the Kings were not happy with a few of the penalty calls last night. Replay seemed to indicate that on Brad Richardson’s double-minor high-sticking penalty, his stick was lifted clear off the ice by Colorado’s Kyle Quincey. There was also some chatter about the first-period roughing call on Jack Johnson. It raises the question: should coaches be able to “challenge” some calls, the way NFL coaches can?

It might be opening up a can of worms, but I think it’s worth at least considering, ONLY on calls that could be conclusively looked at, such as a high-sticking call, and not completely subjective calls such as holding, slashing, etc. Maybe only for major penalties or double-minors? I asked Terry Murray today whether he had any thoughts on the subject, and he didn’t totally dismiss the idea…

MURRAY: “The only way it could work would be to have a video replay available to the on-ice official, in the box, so he could go review it immediately. You’d also have to have a pretty good spy in the sky, to be able to get a call down to the bench. Then, like Jack’s penalty, that’s just a discretion call by the official. You can never challenge that, but when it has a huge impact on the game… Games today, they’re all one-goal games, not only at this time of the year but throughout the year. They’re so close that it makes a difference in the outcome of the game. I don’t know the answer to that. It would be a topic of discussion.”