[kristianhay]

CHICAGO — It’s not often the NHL cops to a mistake, but when a goal is as far offside as was the Chicago Blackhawks’ second Tuesday night, there’s not much point in pretending otherwise.

Riding the momentum generated from the questionable too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty assessed by a linesman against Vancouver two minutes and 16 seconds earlier, the Hawks took the lead for good at 5:18, Brian Campbell’s go-ahead goal a clear blunder by linesmen Jean Morin and Derek Nansen.

“I said to Mike [Canucks GM Gillis], ‘Yes, it was offside but they did score five more,’” said series supervisor and recent B.C. Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Rob Shick, who was one of the best referees in the game at the time of his retirement two years ago. “He acknowledged he was well aware of those.”

While that is certainly true, and perhaps there was no way Vancouver would ever have competed in that game, that’s not the way it works. You never know what’s going to get a team started, and certainly the Hawks got a tremendous push from that goal, which should have been whistled at the blueline. When you throw this mistake in with the fact the Hawks have had 19 power-play opportunities compared to Vancouver’s 10 in the four games, can it be any wonder the hockey fans of this city are developing a persecution complex?

There is also a sense that Vancouver got a break when defenceman Kevin Bieksa was not given an instigator penalty near the end of the game when he decided he’d taken quite enough from Viktor Stalberg and landed a few punches.

And while Shick actually believes Bieksa should have had the instigator called on him, there is no automatic suspension assessed to a player in that situation.

“They [the Hawks] were asking for it, but he wouldn’t have missed a game anyway,” said Shick. “The rule was designed to make sure those guys who get no minutes don’t come out at the end of the game and get involved. It wasn’t designed to target guys who play the game.”

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