The NHL couldn’t get over the missed offside call, even though linesmen have made millions of correct one, they could get past this one missed offside call. For 19 months they kept talking about it until finally they got their wish. I’d love to speak with the individuals who pushed for this rule. I guarantee they regret pushing for offside challenges.

The initial rule was awful. We saw hundreds of goals called back, because a player’s skate wasn’t on the ice when he entered the zone. Even though his skate wasn’t actually in the offensive zone, it wasn’t touching the ice so they deemed those plays offside. Thankfully they changed that rule and deemed if a player’s skate, regardless of whether it was on the ice or not, was not across the blueline he would be deemed onside.

The NHL has changed the rule once, and they need to again.

We are seeing way too many goals called back because a player is offside by the slimmest of margins, but they only way the see it is by watching the replay countless times in slow motion. The game isn’t played in slow motion. The linesmen and players don’t see in slow motion. It is impossible to ask humans to make these calls in slow motion, and the truth is there are times plays are whistled down for an offside, but if they reviewed it they’d see the player was actually onside. We live with the fact the play was blown dead and move on.

The NHL has to re-think their offside challenge. They will never completely abolish the reviews, but they should abolish being able to watch it in slow motion. It is a simple change.

Reviews are in real time only. The purpose of the rule was to avoid EGREGIOUS offsides, not ones where a player is a centimeter offside, and the review team has watched it frame-by-frame in super slow motion five times to finally see it was offside.

It is asinine to call these goals back. Because if you are doing to review those, then why not review dump ins from centre ice that aren’t deemed icing. How often do we see a player dump the puck in from his side of centre, but it isn’t whistled down for icing. The play continues, and sometimes the team dumping the puck in scores.

If your argument is GET THE CALL RIGHT, then they should review every instance leading up to goals. You can’t claim you want the right call, but then only want specific things reviewed. But the NHL has done that, because let’s be realistic, it would be awful reviewing dump ins from centre. They don’t review every play. Ask Vegas fans if the league should have reviewed the Cody Eakin crosscheck on Joe Pavelski in Game 7 of the 2019 playoffs. Eakin was assessed a five-minute major. It was clearly not a major, but the play wasn’t reviewed.

The Sharks scored a stunning FOUR goals on the Eakin major to take a 4-3 lead. Vegas actually tied the game in regulation, before Barclay Goodrow won it in overtime.

The missed call completely changed the game, but we lived with the human error. It happens, and everyone survived. The Vegas franchise didn’t plummet to the bottom of the NHL standings the following year. They moved on, as did the entire league.

I applauded the NHL when they realized their initial error regarding “skate off the ice” and fixed it. So, the precedent is there, to continue to alter the rule and make it better. No one wants goals to count due to blatant offsides, but the truth is the Duchene goal is a massive outlier. The linesmen are great, and they rarely miss one. That was a one-off and the league should have realized it, but they didn’t, and now we are paying the price.

Stop the insanity. Offside reviews should only be seen in real time, and I’d argue a maximum of three views. If it isn’t obvious, then move on and play. And make sure your NHL partners only show the replay in the building and on Television in real time. We are seeing too many goals called back off due to meaningless offsides. The rule needs to be altered.

QUICK HITS…

— The most hat tricks in a season by an active player was six by Auston Matthews last year. Mikko Rantanen tallied his third hatty last night in Pittsburgh. It was Rantanen’s 30th game of the season. The Avalanche franchise record is four hat tricks, set by Peter Stastny in 1983.

— Roman Josi has been on a for a league-most 43 goals against at even strength, which puts him on pace to be on for 121. It is crazy how rough things are in Nashville this season, even for Josi.

— Ten years after the original, the San Jose Sharks are back with another Christmas song. Solid. I’d give Nico Sturm the top performer.

— Of the 181 NHL D-men who have played at least 170 minutes 5×5 since December first, Darnell Nurse (260 min) has been on the ice for the fewest goals against at two. Dylan Samberg (181 min) has also been for two. Nurse has the best GF% at 80% and the lowest GA/60 at 0.46. While Nurse has been on the ice for two goals against Troy Stecher has been on for eight, Brett Kulak (11), Ty Emberson (12), Mattias Ekholm (16) and Evan Bouchard (17). Nurse has been the Oilers best defender by a large margin the past six weeks.