Photo credit: Bob Frid-Imagn Images
Victor Mancini got caught in a dangerous non-call Saturday, and Adam Foote had every reason to hate what unfolded against Utah.
The play is hard to dress up any other way.
Liam O’Brien went in for the check on Mancini in the corner, then swung his stick down while falling, and no penalty was called.
That’s the kind of sequence that leaves a bench boiling.
It gets worse when you remember where it happened.
This wasn’t a scramble at center ice with bodies everywhere. The play was along the wall, right in an area where an official should have had a clean look at the slash.
Vancouver can live with a missed offside or a close icing. A dangerous stick play on a young defenceman is a different story, especially when two referees are on the ice and both let it go.
Adam Foote had a right to be furious
Foote’s group has taken enough on the chin this season without watching something like that slide by. Vancouver entered Saturday at 22-45-8, while Utah came in at 39-30-6.
When the whistle disappears on a dangerous play, it changes the temperature of the whole night.
And that old line still fits: officials say they don’t want to influence the game, but passing on a penalty influences it too.
That’s the part fans never let go, and they shouldn’t. A non-call is still a decision, and this one handed the game a different standard in a moment that demanded one.
The biggest issue isn’t outrage on social media. It’s what could have happened if Mancini had been hurt on the play.
That’s where these sequences stop being “part of the game” and start looking reckless. You can survive a bad bounce. You shouldn’t have to survive a missed dangerous stick play right in front of the stripes.
For Vancouver, this should have been an automatic call. For the officials, it was a brutal miss.
Previously on Vancouver Hockey Daily
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