Preds goalie says NHL should ‘definitely’ have coach’s challenges

In the wake of Matt Duchene’s egregious offside goal from Colorado’s 6-5 win over Nashville on Monday, the discussion of implementing coach’s challenges in the NHL has fired up again.

Not surprisingly, the goalie victimized on Duchene’s tally says hockey could use them.

“I think it would be a great element to have in this game,” Nashville netminder Chris Mason told Sportnet. “We have the video as they do in football. The reality is that people make mistakes. There’s nothing wrong with that, but if you have the ability to challenge it and use your timeout as leverage or something like that, I don’t see why you wouldn’t [have challenges].

“I’ve said it before, I definitely think it should be in the game of hockey.”

Of the four major professional sports in North America, only the NFL has implemented coach’s challenges.

But that doesn’t mean others have stayed stagnant when it comes to video replay.

In 2008, Major League Baseball implemented instant replay for fair/foul balls, whether the ball actually left the playing field and balls subjected to spectator interference. In 2014, it’s expected that MLB will expand its replay system.

In 2012, the NBA decided to further expand on its instant replay practices — adding three additional uses — building on rules originally put in place for the 2002-03 season (the league also made some additional rules regarding replay in 2010.)

Mason thinks adding some sort of replay/challenge system would allow for the correction of egregious missed calls, like the one on Monday.

“I can accept mistakes, but it’s tough when it’s that blatant,” he explained. “It’s not like it was a close call or could’ve gone either way.

“He was like eight feet offsides.”