The NHL owes a thank-you card to Johnny Hockey.
And some flowers for teammate Mikael Backlund, too.
For a few minutes on Tuesday night, it looked like controversy was going to overshadow what turned into a terrific Game 3 in Calgary. Flames rookie Sam Bennett appeared to score the tying goal with six minutes left in the third period to save the Flames season, giving them life after they'd been outplayed heavily and trailed the Anaheim Ducks by two games.
But when the league went to video review, they didn't have a single shot that could definitively show Bennett's "goal" was in, despite the fact it appeared to carom quickly off netminder Frederik Andersen's pad, which was clearly deep past the goal line.
Clouding matters more was the fact that the net was coming off its moorings, and the puck may or may not have been airborne.
No definitive view. No goal.
And Calgary was looking at a three-games-to-zero hole against a very good Ducks team because of it.
Only that didn't happen.
Instead, Johnny Gaudreau, silent all series, scored a beautiful replacement goal, putting a wrist shot in an almost invisible hole over Andersen with 20 seconds left and the goalie pulled.
Then Backlund put the winner through traffic and off of a Ducks defenceman four minutes into overtime.
Like that, we had a series again, and the controversy became much less relevant.
What's crazy is that the NHL is even in this position, especially after so many plays like this in the past. In fact, Calgary was likely robbed of a key goal in a deciding game in the Stanley Cup final 11 years ago on a remarkably similar play, when Martin Gelinas – now a Flames assistant coach – directed a puck into Nikolai Khabibulin's pad with his skate.
As was the case then and now, the angle shown again and again on television was from the typical replay side shot facing the net, meaning white ice was visible but very little was conclusive.
Because the puck has to completely cross the line, the only way to tell would be an overhead shot, and on Tuesday, the only overhead available showed the crossbar obscuring the view.
The NHL's new cameras that are embedded in the posts in these playoffs also apparently didn't provide more clarity, but we were never given that look on the broadcast or any explanation why it wasn't available.
The league ultimately released a vague statement stating that "video review was inconclusive … therefore the referee's call on the ice stands."
The referee in this case, however, was behind Bennett and blocked from seeing the play.
NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly confirmed on Wednesday that the cameras in the goalposts were "utilized" on the review even though that view was never shown on television. "All angles were available in Toronto [in the NHL war room where disputed plays are reviewed]," Daly said.
Because of the unique angles involved, and the fact that Andersen's pad was obscuring a lot of views, it's highly plausible that the new look wasn't any more helpful.
All these years later, the Gelinas no-goal lives on in infamy today for conspiracy theorists because the Flames ultimately lost that game and the Cup, in part due to the disputed goal.
This one isn't going to have that staying power, but that doesn't make it less of a cautionary tale for the league.
In theory, the NHL should be able to prevent this situation from ever happening again once electronic chips are embedded in pucks, something that is expected to happen for the start of next season.
In practice? Well, we've gone 11 years, with a lot of new technology and viewpoints added into every rink during games, and we're still dealing with the same basic issues where we can't see the puck or the goal line properly at key points in the game.
The league is lucky that, this time, it didn't affect the outcome of the game or series.
Who's to say it won't next time?