Sports
McIndoe: It's time for the NHL to stop interference and offside reviews
The symmetry was almost perfect.
In the history of the NHL’s foray into the world of replay review, there are two moments that stand out as crucial landmarks, the key signposts that pointed us toward where we wound up. The most recent came in 2013, when Colorado center Matt Duchene scored a goal despite being roughly a mile offside.
The play is, to this day, widely misunderstood. The linesman didn’t somehow miss the fact that Duchene was offside; rather, he thought that the Nashville Predators had directed the puck back into their own zone, which would negate an offside call. But the optics were terrible. Everything about the play looked wrong, up to and including Duchene’s muted celebration. He knew he’d gotten away with one, as did everyone watching. And, eventually, the confusion and frustration of such an obvious missed call coalesced around a seemingly easy solution: Why don’t we have replay review for these plays?
And now we do, and it’s awful, but hold that thought. Because for the other key moment, we have to go back even further. Now it’s the 1999 Stanley Cup Final, and we’re in triple overtime of Game 6. With the Buffalo Sabres fighting to extend the series, the Dallas Stars’ Brett Hull collects a rebound and scores the Cup winner.
Hull’s skate is clearly in the crease, and for just about all of the previous four years, that had meant an easy no-goal call, thanks to a cut-and-dried rule that we all hated. But this time, there’s no pause for a review, no announcement from the officials. Hull scores, the celebration is on, and next thing you know, Gary Bettman is out there with the Stanley Cup while fans around the world watched replays and tried to figure out how a goal we were sure had been waved off 100 times before was now allowed to count.
This play is misunderstood, too, although most of that falls on the NHL. There’s an interpretation of the 1990s crease rule that allows for players to be in the crease if they have possession of the puck, which Hull kind of, sort of does. There was reportedly a memo about exactly this sort of play that had gone out a few weeks before Hull’s goal, although nobody thought to mention it to the fans. But none of that really matters, because the apparent lack of any formal review would be the last straw for a rule that clearly wasn’t working. The NHL ditched the crease rule that summer, one of the very few examples from Bettman’s era of the league admitting a mistake and taking action to correct it.
The symmetry is almost perfect. A little too perfect, really. Because now, all these years later, we’ve got another replay debate involving the Dallas Stars. Once again, it’s about a player in the crease. Once again, it’s from Game 6, in overtime, of a series the Stars are trying to close out, just like that infamous 1999 goal.
And who’s in the middle of it all? Our old friend Matt Duchene.
Here’s the play in question, if you somehow missed it. It’s Friday night, or early Saturday morning depending on where you are. We’re midway through the first overtime, and Mason Marchment appears to score what would be the series winner. But the referee on the ice waves it off immediately and emphatically, and (to his credit) even explains why to the audience: Contact in the blue paint, no goal.
And then we all watched the replay and … oof.
That’s Duchene in front, number 95. He skates right up to the Colorado crease, but stops just short, or maybe not. He’s screening Colorado goaltender Alexandar Georgiev and then there’s some contact with defenseman Cale Makar, pushing Duchene a little closer. At some point, there’s very light contact with Georgiev, who ends up out of position and unable to stop Marchment’s incoming shot.
Is that goalie interference? You know the drill by now — nobody knows, none of us understand the rule, they’re flipping coins, etc. You also know that it’s not true, and that the rulebook isn’t all that complicated, and that with just a few minutes of actually learning the rule, it’s possible to get about 90 percent of these, but at this point, people seem to love putting on a show of feigned ignorance.
In this case, it all comes down to whether Duchene is in the crease or not, and it’s close. Based on the replays we see, he doesn’t seem to be. Maybe he is once Makar arrives to make contact, but that would be a case of the defending team forcing the attacking team into the crease. To my eyes, this goal looks like it should count, although there’s a case for both sides. But the call on the ice is no goal, and the league has been deferring to that with what seems like increasing frequency this season, which is what the rulebook says we should do. So we’re in that dreaded 10 percent, where we’re not really sure. And there’s a series on the line.
Eventually, the word comes down. The call on the ice stands. No goal. And it’s fair to say that most fans watching didn’t seem to agree. One of the things that happens when you go around like some sort of self-anointed expert writing guides to controversial rules is that fans like to send you their thoughts when those calls happen. My unscientific survey says that you think the league got the call wrong, in very large (although certainly not unanimous) numbers. The vast majority of you thought the Stars got robbed.
The best thing you can say about that call is that it didn’t end up mattering, because Duchene himself scored in double overtime to end the series. Puck don’t lie, and all that. That was a tough result for the Avalanche, but probably a lucky one for the league, which ended up with a controversial no-goal, but not a no-goal that will live in infamy.
No harm done, right? Well … maybe.
In the big picture, the right team won and we can all move on. But we shouldn’t do that. Because this is pretty clearly the game giving us a message. Come on, it’s Matt Duchene, in Game 6 overtime of a Dallas Stars playoff clincher? The hockey gods couldn’t be any more obvious here. They’re practically putting a big flashing neon sign on the ice, and that sign says “Fix replay.”
So let’s do that. Let’s fix the replay system, in the best and simplest way that we could: By getting rid of it.
That’s it. That’s the answer, folks. Yes, there are other ways we could do this, ways that would be vast improvements on the current mess of a system. I’ve pitched a few of those ideas myself. But why settle for being a little bit better when we can fix this once and for all?
Dump it. Trash it. No more replay review, for interference or offside. It’s time to do what the league did in 1999, and read the writing on the wall. This time, we’ve even got a chance to do it before the inevitable disaster that will ruin a Stanley Cup Final.
The goaltender interference rule isn’t as complicated as you think, but it’s a terrible fit for replay review because almost all of the various contingencies are subjective. Was contact incidental? Did it prevent the goalie from playing his position? Did he have time to recover and reset? All of that falls into a gray area of an official’s opinion. Yet we still stop the game for extended reviews under the pretext of “getting it right,” searching and scanning for the one freeze frame that will get everyone to agree. We never, ever find it. Instead, we end up with a decision that nobody agrees on. One fan base thinks it’s obvious in their direction, the other thinks it’s obvious for them, and everyone else shrugs and isn’t completely sure, no matter how many angles we get.
If your system is in place because you have to get it right and nobody thinks you do, then your system is broken. Get rid of it.
Then there’s offside, a play that’s at least theoretically objective. You’re over the line, or you’re not, and unless it’s one of those outlier plays where we have to argue about possession, we should be able to find that one freeze frame that lets us all agree. And we do! Occasionally. But most times, we don’t. The angle isn’t quite right, or the footage isn’t quite clear enough, or it ends up being too close to call. And through it all, there’s a good chance that the entry we’re reviewing happened well before the goal, maybe with a few changes of possessions in between. What are we doing here?
We put the system in place to catch a repeat of that initial Duchene miss, and over a decade later, we haven’t had a single one. Instead, we’ve got video coaches watching every zone entry, looking for get-out-of-jail-free cards. We’ve got linesmen who are pretty clearly letting close plays go, because they know that replay is lurking. We’ve had guys changing lines, completely out of the play, getting caught on technicalities that decide a Game 7.
And through it all, a generation of fans have been taught not to get too excited about a goal, because you never know when that random replay is going to take it off the board. A league starved for offense has taught its audience that some goals have to be stricken from the record, just because. Every exciting moment is followed by a shot of a listless coach staring down at an iPad. Countless games ground to a halt. Excitement sapped out of buildings.
All in the name of just getting it right, which nobody thinks we’re actually doing.
Everybody’s mad all the time. Literally every fan base thinks the Toronto situation room is biased against them personally. Everyone pretends they don’t understand interference. Nobody can squint hard enough to know which blue-line pixel we’re supposed to be fixating on. We’re all yelling at each other, constantly. The league’s own broadcasters are accusing the refs of betting on games. It’s all become a contest to see who can be the angriest, all the time, at the loudest volume. It’s exhausting.
Nobody thinks this is working. But we’re convinced we have to keep doing it, because what if we go back and something gets missed?
Well, what if it did? You old-timer fans out there: How many missed offside calls do you remember being mad about, back in the day? Sure, Leon Stickle, which was in 1980. How many others? What about goalie interference? Was that a play you spent a lot of time thinking about back in the pre-replay days?
Not really. Instead, we all understood that sometimes there would be a close call, and sometimes it would go against your team, and that was life as a sports fan. That’s not to say we didn’t get mad, or complain, or spend roughly 30 years crying about it. But we understood that it was how sports worked, and we didn’t expect the entire game to grind to a halt a few times a night so that we could find one frame of footage to obsess over, all while getting most of the calls right but some of them wrong, because that’s sports.
I’m not saying we ditch replay entirely. There are elements of the game in which it works perfectly, exactly the way it’s intended. Keep it for figuring out if time had expired before a goal, absolutely. Use it for determining if a puck crossed the line, as long as you understand that sometimes you just won’t be sure. Keep using it for kicked-in goals, if you insist, although that won’t work all the time, either.
But offside reviews that come down to a millimeter? No. And goalie interference calls that are almost entirely subjective? Absolutely not. Because right now, we’re not getting it right, at least not the way we were promised. We’re arguing more, not less. And we’re not making anyone feel better about NHL officiating. We don’t need to do this anymore.
I know it. You know it. And the hockey gods know it, too, which is why they hit us between the eyes with a decidedly over-the-top message on Friday night. This time, they were even kind enough to do it in a way that didn’t cost a team a series or create a controversy that we’ll remember years from now. Next time, we might not be so lucky.
Duchene got us into this mess. Maybe he can be the one to save us, too. Scrap replay review, accept that there will be calls that don’t go your team’s way, and live with it. As we found out in 1999, that option isn’t perfect, but it’s a lot better than the inevitable alternative.
(Photo of referee Dan O’Rouke: Claus Andersen / Getty Images)
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Denmark’s Christian Eriksen collapsed during his team’s international friendly match against Ukraine on Sunday.
Eriksen, who has a history of collapsing on the pitch, did so again as help rushed out to meet him near midfield.
Thankfully, the Danish Football Union said in a statement that he was “conscious and feeling well under the circumstances.” The 34-year-old’s incident led to the game being abandoned.
Christian Eriksen of Denmark looks on during the UEFA International Friendly match between DR Congo and Denmark at Stade Maurice Dufrasne in Liege, Belgium, on June 3, 2026. (Ulrik Pedersen/NurPhoto)
Denmark was up, 2-1, on Ukraine in the 61st minute at the time of Eriksen’s collapse.
Eriksen previously starred for Tottenham and Manchester United in the English Premier League. He currently plays for VfL Wolfsburg in 2. Bundesliga.
SOCCER PLAYER DIES AT 21 AFTER COLLISION WITH OPPONENT DURING MATCH
During the European Championship between Denmark and Finland in June 2021, play was suspended after a terrifying scene where Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest on the pitch in the first half of the game.
Play immediately came to a halt at Parken Stadium in Copenhagen, where Eriksen was lying on the grass unresponsive. CPR was needed to resuscitate him, as medical staff and teammates made a circle around his body in clear distress, hoping for the best.
Denmark’s and Ukraine’s players accompany Christian Eriksen to an ambulance during a friendly match at Odense Stadium in Denmark on June 7, 2026, after he collapsed on the field. (Bo Amstrup/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images)
Eriksen received 10 minutes of medical care and was later taken off the pitch on a stretcher with an oxygen mask around his mouth. Images began to circulate on social media at the time, showing Eriksen awake and having a hand on his forehead.
Eriksen was later transferred to a hospital and was stabilized.
Since that moment, Eriksen was fitted with a heart-starting device called an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator.
Denmark’s team doctor Morten Boesen released a statement via multiple outlets, stating Eriksen’s “pacemaker is responding as it should.”
Christian Eriksen of Denmark looks on during a UEFA international friendly between DR Congo and Denmark at Stade Maurice Dufrasne in Liege, Belgium, on June 3, 2026. (Ulrik Pedersen/NurPhoto)
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“He was briefly unconscious, but regained consciousness very quickly, and we were quickly in contact with him,” Boesen’s statement read.
“He will not undergo further examinations at the hospital to determine what caused the incident. We are in ongoing contact with him and the doctors at the hospital. But Christian is doing well, and he asked me to send his regards to all the players and tell them that he was okay.”
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Sports
Commentary: Dodgers show courage by permanently honoring LGBTQ+ pioneers Glenn Burke and Billy Bean
Let’s go Dodgers. High fives all around.
Because this time, with the newest historical exhibit at Dodger Stadium, the team got it right.
Amid all the historical installations and tributes in the open-air museum that is the Centerfield Plaza, and just a few feet from a Fernando Valenzuela mural, a new display honors Glenn Burke and Billy Bean, two former Dodgers outfielders who were the first and second professional baseball players to come out as gay.
It’s not a fleeting mention on Pride night, it’s a permanent record. A static reminder of progress made — and still to be made. And a much-deserved thank-you.
A wall inside Dodger Stadium honors former Dodgers and LGBTQ+ pioneers Billy Bean and Glenn Burke.
(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)
“It’ll be here tomorrow, it’ll be here on the weekend and if you come next month, it’ll be here,” said the Dodgers’ team historian Mark Langill, who pointed to a spot just down the hall where in 1976 he was an 11-year-old getting Burke’s autograph.
Baseball is steeped in such history. The personal, the statistical, the societal. And the Dodgers’ is incomplete without their stories — Burke’s and Bean’s.
But the Dodgers have not, of course, always gotten this stuff right.
In 1978, they did Burke wrong, trading him — he believed — after management learned he was gay.
In his three seasons in L.A., Burke had proved himself a capable reserve outfielder who was popular with his teammates.
As far as we know, in 1977, he was the first guy to initiate a high five — spontaneously reaching above his head to slap hands with Dusty Baker after the home run that made Baker the fourth Dodger, along with Ron Cey, Steve Garvey and Reggie Smith, to hit at least 30 home runs that season, a MLB first.
Glenn Burke, left, goes to give a high-five to teammate Dusty Baker after Baker hit a home run in 1977. It is believed to be the first instance a high five was exchanged.
(Los Angeles Times)
There’s a fantastic photo of the historic high five included in the tribute to Burke and Bean, which is situated on a hallway wall beneath the left-field bleachers, beside the “Dodger Dugout” augmented reality photo booth.
Burke was also the first guy in that Dodgers clubhouse to crack a joke when the team needed it, his former teammate Rick Monday said.
“When called upon, he could play really well,” Monday said before the Dodgers took the field against the Angels on Friday, when the Dodgers and many of their rainbow-sporting fans celebrated the team’s 13th annual LGBTQ+ Pride Night. “And when we needed a moment of levity, Glenn was not afraid to come forward and put a smile on people’s face.”
But shortly before he died of AIDS in 1995 at 42, Burke published an autobiography, “Out at Home,” in which he described the team’s management being “afraid of my sexual orientation, even though I never flaunted it. To this day, the Dodgers deny trading me because I was gay. But it was painfully obvious.”
“Oh, what he had to deal with and keep it hid,” said Joyce Burke-Henderson, one of Glenn’s sisters at Friday’s pregame unveiling, where family members of both players gasped and cried and cheered the installation’s reveal.
“But as time went on, people did know. And then I think he came to the point where he just didn’t care and he just told it like it was.”
Joyce Henderson, sister of Glenn Burke, speaks about her brother during a ceremony honoring the former Dodger and LGBTQ+ pioneer at Dodger Stadium Friday.
(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)
Burke came out in 1982, three years after playing his 225th and final big league game, in an Inside Sports article, “The Double Life of a Gay Dodger.”
“We just appreciate that now people are opening their eyes and just trusting in the Lord,” Burke-Henderson said Friday, “that things will go forward and work out and everybody will be loved regardless of their situation.”
The Dodgers first honored Burke in 2022, at their ninth Pride Night.
The next season, they made a mess of the Pride festivities, inviting and uninviting and then reinviting the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group known for its work in support of AIDS patients and whose members dress in drag, as nuns.
In 2023, the Dodgers also invited Bean — who was MLB’s senior vice president for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. He appeared in a pregame ceremony on the field while protesters gathered outside the stadium.
Bean died the next year, at 60, 11 months after being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.
Greg Baker, husband of the late Billy Bean, wipes away tears during a tribute honor Bean as a LGBTQ+ pioneer at Dodger Stadium on Friday.
(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)
Once a Northeast Santa Ana Little Leaguer, Bean became valedictorian at Santa Ana High, played for Loyola Marymount and went on to appear in 272 big-league games — including 51 for the Dodgers in 1989 — before abruptly walking away from baseball in 1995.
It got to be too much, he’d explain later, continuing to hustle to keep his baseball career afloat while keeping his sexuality secret, acutely aware of the blowback he’d get if it got out.
“For nine years,” he told the New York Times, “I felt as though I had one foot in the major leagues and one on a banana peel.”
“When he left baseball suddenly, I knew something was wrong,” Bean’s mother, Linda Kovac, said Friday, pausing to wipe away tears. “He was playing very well, it wasn’t like he was kicked out or anything. And it just didn’t make any sense.”
When Bean finally told his family he was gay, in 1996 — three years before clueing in an unsuspecting public via a Miami Herald article — none of his loved ones blinked. That included his stepfather, Ed Kovac, the homicide cop and former Marine who’d had a partner on the force who was gay.
“He worked with someone that he respected, side by side, on criminal cases,” Linda said. “We’re still friends with that guy.”
Linda and Ed Kovac, parents of Billy Bean, hold hands in front of a tribute dedicated to their son at Dodger Stadium on Friday.
(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)
Knowing someone — or of someone — who is gay or lesbian has long tended to dispel falsehoods and quell fears that might exist.
“One of the most important things any one of us can do in our community is be out, to be proud,” said Greg Baker, Bean’s husband. “The fact that someone can be out in a world that typically doesn’t have a lot of role models of the same ilk, it’s a brave thing to stick your neck out. It’s also very important.”
And it’s not a surprise, Baker said, that more athletes aren’t out in sports like baseball. Not with Gallup polling released last week telling us that with public acceptance of same-sex marriage and relationships in the U.S. has flattened after two-plus decades of growing support — down from 71% to about 65%.
“I want to thank the Dodgers organization,” Baker said. “It’s brave of them in this day and age to spotlight someone in our community when other organizations are trying to erase us.”
The Dodgers have done the opposite, putting up a permanent marker. A long time coming, a tribute to last.
Sports
Golden Knights beat Hurricanes in double OT Game 3, one of the wildest Stanley Cup Final games of all-time
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The Stanley Cup Final shifted to Las Vegas for Game 3 with the Vegas Golden Knights and Carolina Hurricanes knotted at 1-1 after splitting the opening two games in Raleigh.
And, as you’d expect from the Golden Knights, this one got started with some theatrics, plus a little help from the city’s latest hope at quarterback, who was getting in on the festivities.
That’s right. Who better to put on siren duty than Raiders draft pick and reigning Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza?
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There was a big surprise when the game got underway: Golden Knights defenseman Brayden McNabb — who took a slapshot straight to the face on Thursday in Game 2 — was in the Vegas lineup, albeit with a full cage.
It goes without saying, but hockey players are just built different.
The first period was physical but ultimately scoreless, with Carolina getting more offensive opportunities, leading Vegas in shots 7-2.
Vegas captain Mark Stone found the back of the net just 36 seconds into the second period; however, it was ruled offside after a Carolina challenge.
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A few minutes later, Golden Knights forward Jack Eichel found the back of the net, but Carolina challenged this goal as well after Vegas’ Ivan Barbashev made contact with Canes goalie Frederik Andersen’s head.
It was another cut-and-dried review that kept a Golden Knights tally off the board.
The first penalty of the night was a self-inflicted one, when the Hurricanes were called for too many men, and it didn’t take long for Tomas Hertl to make them pay.
Then, just moments later — 16 seconds to be exact — Mitch Marner was credited with a goal after Carolina defenseman Sean Walker tipped his shot into the back of his own net.
But, hey, those own goals are no fun; Marner wanted to get one the old-fashioned way, which he did.
What’s that, you want more?
Well, Mitch Marner — who is having the playoffs of his life — had more for you.
That’s right, Marner potted a hat trick in just six minutes and 10 seconds. That’s an NHL record.
Although, I bet The Rocket’s first goal of his lightning-quick hatty wasn’t an own goal, but hey, they count the same.
Vegas star Mitch Marner took over in the second period of Game 3 with a natural hat trick in just six minutes and ten seconds. (Photo by David Becker/NHLI via Getty Images)
What a performance. Maybe he was just doing that so that the next time the team puts him on a rally towel it actually looks like him.
After the second intermission, Andersen was pulled in favor of Brand Bussi, who made his Stanley Cup Playoffs debut.
Carolina was in a state of disarray in the third, and after going on a power play, Sebastian Aho slashed Marner, who was headed to the net on a short-handed breakaway.
Marner was awarded a penalty shot, but Bussi didn’t give him much to shoot at, and Marner missed his attempt on the backhand.
While it may have looked bleak after a dominant second for Vegas, in the third, Carolina dropped the fastest three goals in Stanley Cup Final history to make it a game. (Photo by Josh Lavallee/NHLI via Getty Images))
Carolina’s Jordan Martinook got the Hurricanes on the board a little under halfway through the third period to make it 4-1.
Just moments later, Taylor Hall tacked on another one to cut Vegas’ lead to 4-2.
And, while they’re doing goals, how about you just throw a Jordan Staal tally in there?
Carolina scored those three goals in 39 seconds, the fastest three goals by a single team in Stanley Cup Final history, making what looked like a no-doubt Vegas win into a game once again.
Carolina killed off a delay-of-game penalty, which was crucial for staying in the game.
Then, Vegas’ Shea Theodore airmailed a puck into the stands for delay of game, giving Carolina a late power play.
Then — as if it couldn’t get wilder — Andrei Svechnikov tied the game on the power play and with the goalie pulled.
And with that, it was off to overtime for the second game in a row.
In the extra frame, both teams got their share of chances and opportunities to put a pin in this one and hit the craps tables, but the first overtime period didn’t yield a winner.
In the second overtime, we finally got a winner, and as wild as this game was, it was only fitting that the game-winner would be unbelievable.
That’s the same Shea Theodore, by the way, who skied the puck into the stands to set up the tying goal, and he did it after 39 minutes of ice time.
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Vegas players Brett Howden (21), Shea Theodore (center), and Mitch Marner (93) celebrate the game-winning goal in double overtime. (Lucas Peltier-Imagn Images)
What. A. Game.
I think after this one, Game 4 — which will be on Tuesday in Las Vegas — is officially appointment viewing.
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