Some game clocks will, in fact, “pause” momentarily on certain tenths when the time gets below 1:00, because it can’t display the tenths changing fast enough, but the Kings’ clock sat on 1.8 seconds for a full second.

I’ve worked game clocks in college sports before. I never f’d with the clock in the final seconds of a game to give an advantage to the home team, but I have done similar “stop/starts” during play to make up for inadvertent delays I had in stopping the clock previously. Basically if I forgot to stop a clock for a second or two after a whistle, I’d quickly click the clock on/off after I restart it to add the seconds back without keeping the clock held on “stop”.

There was sustained Kings offensive pressure in those last few seconds of the game, and I would put this squarely on the person operating the clock at the Staples Center for that game. Don’t know if he’s a Kings employee, Staples Center employee, or NHL employee, but whoever he/she is, I’d be asking that person some questions.

Who knows, maybe he thought a whistle was blown at some point when the Jackets goalie dove out, but until the league gets answers from that person, the spotlight needs to point there.