NHL explains missed Sharks goal; ‘intent to blow’ strikes again

The San Jose Sharks missed out on an extra point Tuesday night when a goal they appeared to score in overtime against the Buffalo Sabres went unnoticed. Replays clearly showed the puck go behind Ryan Miller and over the Sabres' goal line, but no goal was called and there was no video review of the play.

On Wednesday, the CBC's Elliotte Friedman received an explanation from Mike Murphy, the NHL's Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations:

"[Referee Mike] Leggo waves it off when the puck hits the post and starts to come to the net as a scramble develops. [In the NHL's video review room in Toronto] we're still looking at the puck off the post, then see the play with Leggo approaching net, putting the whistle in his mouth and he waves aggressively.

"The optics would have been better if we got him to put on the headset and asked what he was seeing... We spoke after the game, I told him it did go in, we probably would get some pushback and should have gotten him over [to the headset] for the optics of the review."

The question that comes to mind after reading Murphy's explanation is why the war room in Toronto would call down to Leggo, or vice versa, in that situation if no one knew the puck had gone in. Leggo, as per Murphy's quote, didn't know the puck had crossed the goal line until after the game, while the war room staff only realized after play had resumed.

To the Sharks' credit, they weren't crying over the missed goal. They were more upset at the fact they dropped a game to the lowly Buffalo Sabres.

Said Logan Couture to CSN Bay Area: “You can’t lose that game ... Sloppy, turnovers. D-zone was sloppy. We just didn’t show up ready to play.”

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Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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