NHL officials huddle up Marc DesRosiers-USA TODAY Sports

Watch: NHL referee makes hilarious 'no goal' announcement following replay review

By Adam Gretz | Last updated 2/23/24

The St. Louis Blues were 4-0 winners over the New York Islanders on Thursday night, scoring a franchise record three goals in 32 seconds. They nearly had a fifth goal that was negated because of a high-stick on the puck by forward Alexey Toropchenko.

The play was reviewed with the call on the ice being confirmed. That was where referee Garrett Rank delivered the bad news to the hometown fans with a little bit of flair. He opened his announcement following the review by saying, "You're not gonna like it, but the call on the ice was correct. No goal."

"You're not gonna like it but the call on the ice was correct, no goal"

WHAT A CALL FROM REFEREE GARRETT RANK pic.twitter.com/btv8W3EElG
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) February 23, 2024

He was right. The fans did not like it, but it was still a pretty funny way to deliver the announcement. Blues fans also shouldn't be too mad because they got a huge win for their playoff pursuit and saw an extremely entertaining game.

The only people who might not like this are the NHL offices. While this is a funny video that figures to get some attention, the league does not want its referees to become the stars or go out of their way to call attention to themselves. The NHL doesn't like it when the officials make bad calls. They also don't like it when they do things like this because they are simply there to call the game and not draw the spotlight away from the players and the play on the ice. In the NHL's eyes, the players are supposed to be the stars. Not the referees.

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