by Larry Leavitt

NY Rangers vs. Los Angeles: I’m not a big fan of goaltender interference that’s too opinionated with too many variables, and whether the L.A. Kings Dwight King was pushed into New York Ranger goalie Hendrik Lundvquist in the third period at 1:58 of Saturday night’s game two to cut the Rangers lead to 4-3, there is a lot of discussion if King fell on him or if the Rangers Ryan McDonagh pushed King on Lunqvist.

Also Lundqvist was disputing that the officials got that call right and the Kings certainly and in my opinion it looked like goaltenders interference and the officials say it didn’t look like it was goaltender interference and it didn’t look like he was shoved into Lundqvist. King was shoved into Lundqvist but he was kind of pinched by King.

One thing that Lundvquist has to do is calm down let the refs call the game realize their going to miss calls and he and the Rangers need to go and play their game. It took Lundvqist off his game here and there. There were so many controversial calls and there were so many tough plays and the speed of the game was so quick that either team could be leading this series and the Rangers for instance could be the team leading 2-0 instead of the Kings going into game three on Monday, it’s that close.

It’s just a shame that it’s so controversial but the play was so fast and so furious and their going back and fourth in that double overtime game on Saturday night at Staples Center that you can’t see it all and you can’t catch it all. The non interference call made for good press as everyone who follows the Stanley Cup Finals is talking about that play and it’s making it’s way onto the talk show circuit.

My question is did Lundqvist over annunciate how the power play went so that maybe he’ll catch a better break by the refs or did he feel that it was that bad and it didn’t look that bad but there was definitely contact. The rule is contact period and it didn’t say how severe the contact. Lundqvist was arguing the point hoping the call would go the other way and to capitalize on it.

There was a fair amount of penalities called and how the refs put their whistles in their pockets and the problem that I have is there are a lot of calls that aren’t getting called because their both playing on the edge, both teams are playing for all the marbles and the contact for retaliation is getting called but their missing the initial hits.

Game one the Kings got away with the obvious too many men on the ice which would have gave the Rangers a power play going into the overtime if they didn’t score in the third period. The NHL should worry about cleaning and making it tight but they want the players to play the game. They don’t want the game to count for what it is and their trying not to control the game and take advantage here either.

Larry Leavitt is covering the NHL Stanley Cup Finals for http://www.sportsradioservice.com