Last night, the Toronto Marlies had a hard fought double overtime loss to the Charlotte Checkers, 4-3. It also ended the Marlies’ playoffs in the semi-finals, ruining their bid to repeat as AHL champions.

The thing is, though, that the puck was out of play leading up to the goal. Unfortunately, that’s not reviewable in the AHL — they only look at if the puck was across the goal line or not.

The Marlies have a bad habit of getting kinda screwed over by playoff overtime goals against them like that. Who else remembers the infamous Calder Cup Final goal credited to Mike Kostka that was offside, but missed?

That missed call actually led to the AHL issuing a public apology, not that it changed the result at all.

Here’s the play and the overtime goal this time around. You be the judge.

Personally, I think the Kostka one was worse. It was an immediate thing, the goal was scored while the guy was still offside. In this one, the play carried on and the Marlies actually got possession of the puck to head up ice on a rush, which they turned over before giving up the goal. That’s as much on the Marlies’ there as it is the ref.

So ends a pretty fascinating season for the Marlies. They made it all the way to the semi-finals with a pretty young roster. They were getting a lot of minutes and important roles to guys who are in their early 20’s or even still teenagers. There was some impressive growth by Sandin, Liljegren, Bracco, Brooks, and Moore.

On a positive note from the loss, let’s all watch Timashov pull off the Kucherov deke.

Down in the ECHL, the Newfoundland Growlers came back and won in overtime to take a 2-0 series lead in the Finals.

Have Kyle Dubas and the Leafs turned the ECHL into a development league for NHL players? | by Katya

Projecting the next contracts for Andreas Johnsson and Kasperi Kapanen | by Ian Tulloch at The Athletic

Finns repeat in Slovakia beating Canada 3-1 in the World Championship finals, while Russia beat the Czechs for the Bronze.

Despite playing two fewer games than all the other players behind him, William Nylander wound up hanging onto the points lead for the tournament.

The Rouyn-Noranda Huskies came back from 2-0 to win the Memorial Cup 4-2. Said one of their top players:

God bless the youts and their lack of PR polished quotes. Classic.

Have a happy Monday everyone!

How many players on the Marlies’ playoff roster play a game for the Leafs next year?

05
16
237
379
449
5+48
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