2017 Herder “Winning” Goal

Newfoundland Senior Hockey has seen its share of controversy in the past.  The 2017 Herder Memorial Championship between the Clarenville Caribous & the Conception Bay CeeBee Stars puts an exclamation mark on the word controversy.

First and foremost, I want to apologize to anyone who has taken offense to my tweet saying that the Cee Bee Stars should hang their heads in shame.  My initial reaction to this was swift and I was disgusted.  I made the tweet in haste and without considering the multitude of things that has to be considered.  I was wrong.  The Cee Bee Stars have no reason to hang their heads in shame.  Neither does the Clarenville Caribous.  For anyone who hasn’t made a mistake or said something in haste – you can continue to hate on me – for the rest, just take a pill & relax.

Let’s just look at some of the things that have to be considered.

In what has been one of the more entertaining series in recent history, the CeeBee Stars won with what would appear on a goal that should have been disallowed.  As the Cee Bees Kenny King tosses the puck towards the Caribous net.  The puck appears to have slid under the side of the net and is counted as a goal.

The goal was captured and displayed in the following tweet:

Here is the 2017 Herder Memorial winning goal that caused controversy in Clarenville pic.twitter.com/EEieSowqjs

— Ryan Harding (@ryanhardingNL) April 2, 2017

A frame-by-frame picture has been created from this video and it is very apparent that the puck does slide under the side of the net.

As some people quickly pointed out, this was not either of the teams’ fault.  There is no video replay in the league.   Human error is part of the game.  It is just extremely disappointing to see such a great series end in controversy, especially given the state of senior hockey at the moment.

As another person pointed out – this is what happens when HNL does not put its best referees on the ice.  How do we determine who are the best referees?  That is something that is very subjective in my opinion.

What about video replay?  It’s no secret that teams in Newfoundland Senior Hockey are struggling financially.  Do we force teams to install cameras so that video replay on goals is a reality?  Is that a road we want to go down for what is amateur hockey?

Some have questioned whether there can be a protest by the Caribous.  However, this is a goal and it is entirely the referees discretion as to whether to allow a goal.  There will likely be no protest and no review by Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador.

This all raises a much larger question.  What will happen in the off-season?  Will the Central West Senior Hockey League survive?  We saw earlier in the season the Gander Flyers almost fold.  We saw the regular season shortened and a great playoffs heading into the Herder.  If there is no league, what will happen to the Herder?

What’s your comments about this goal? the future of senior hockey in Newfoundland?  Drop your comments below in the comment box.

Barry Wheeler
Newfoundland Hockey Talk

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