'We'll bring in the CIA': Coaches discuss disallowed Stanley Cup Finals Game 6 goal
Edmonton Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch knew right away he wanted to challenge the goal that Florida captain Aleksander Barkov scored early in the second period to get the Panthers within a goal.
Panthers coach Paul Maurice said based on the videos he had on his bench, he wouldn't challenged the goal had the situation been reversed.
Regardless, the successful challenge of the Barkov goal 10 seconds after the Oilers had made it 2-0 was a key momentum shift in a 5-1 Edmonton win in Game 6 on Friday night. The Oilers have tied the best-of-seven Stanley Cup Final after losing the first three games.
"I actually didn’t think it was that close," Knoblauch said. "We were going to call it right away but we had a little bit of time to review it and were like, OK. The only hesitation was maybe it wasn’t the right video."
Maurice was animated after the league ruled that Sam Reinhart was offside before the goal. He was calmer after the game, saying he was informed by a linesperson that the last video clip the league looked at persuaded it that the play was offside. Maurice said he didn't have that video.
"There was no way I would challenged it if it were reversed," he said. "There was no way you could conclusively say that was offside. I don’t know what the Oilers got. I don’t know what the league gets. I just know that when I would have had to challenge based on what I saw, I would not have challenged."
"I’m not saying it’s not offside. We’ll get still frames. We’ll bring in the CIA. We’ll figure it out. But for the 30 seconds that I would have made that call, I would not have challenged."
Game 7 is Monday night in Sunrise, Florida (8 p.m. ET, ABC).