The makers of that particular clock, Daktronics, examined the Staples Center clock and found no defects. The off-ice crew was also interviewed and nothing was found to be fishy. Colin Campbell said he was "completely satified".
However, Campbell said he will rotate crew members' duties "to avoid any thoughts there may be issues with the clock when opposing teams play at the Staples Center."
There's more:
"We have initiated a number of steps to ensure there will be no clock issues in all arenas in the NHL," Campbell said in an email.
"We are observing all 'last minutes' of each period to make sure there are no 'blips' or 'pauses' in the last minute in the video booths upstairs. In our new video room in Toronto we now receive live feeds of the overheads so we are not 'slaved' to TV waiting to see if they show the overheads.
"We will find a way to bleed the clock feed into the overheads now. We have implemented a few other items into the clock process as well to make sure there can be no burps."
While that's all well and good, I still have questions.
What procedures exactly?
What if there is a blurp? Will it just magically appear back on the scoreboard with no explanation?
I don't think this finding is exactly common knowledge to most NHL fans. So here's the scenerio. Your team is up by a goal with less than a minute to play. The opposing team's pulled their goalie for an extra attacker and they are peppering your tender with amazing shots. A stop is held onto in the crease and the faceoff is about to happen. You glance at the clock. It goes from 15.4 seconds to go to 17.1 seconds to go. Wait, what?
Yeah, there was a problem with the clock and it was correctly. But without this being common knowledge, that's a problem. Unless there's an announcement of some kind.
I know, I know. The possibility is pretty far-fetched, but that's why I want to know the procedures.
Will there be corrections in the final minutes of a period for honest human error? A goal is scored but the clock runs for a few 1/10's of a second. Are those put back on? The clock goes on after a whistle for a moment. The clock is delayed ever-so-slightly on a face off. Are those two things going to result in time-manipulation? If so, why not all the other micro-seconds that are technically lost or extended throughout the game?
Or is it just the burps in time like in Los Angeles where the clock just stops for no apparent reason and is not related to human reaction time (like faceoffs or whistles being blown)?
Amazingly, the NHL already has a rule dealing with human response time when it comes to scoring a goal. That's why I'm surprised they aren't revealing what they plan to do in the final minute in time blip procedures. It may need to wait until next season and it can be properly addressed with the Board of Governors or the NHLPA and until then it will just look at obvious errors, like LA's incident.
By the way, the human factor I'm referring to is explained in Rule 31:
Rule 31.2 says, in paragraphs 2 & 3:
"As there is a human factor involved in blowing the whistle to stop play, the Referee may deem the play to be stopped slightly prior to the whistle actually being blown. The fact that the puck may come loose or cross the goal line prior to the sound of the whistle has no bearing if the Referee has ruled that the play had been stopped prior to this happening.
"In the event of any dispute regarding time or the expiration of penalties, the matter shall be referred to the Referee for adjustment and his decision shall be final. He may use the Video Goal Judge to assist in rendering the final decision."
So there you go. Really, this might not be so much a tweeking of the current rules, but an expansion of the tools used to enforce them.
