Colin Campbell is working hard to ensure the NHL doesn’t have any further issues with scoreboard malfunctions in the future.
The NHL’s senior vice-president and director of hockey operations told Helene Elliott of the Los Angeles Times that the league has taken preventative action to ensure there will be no further clock-related problems.
“We have initiated a number of steps to ensure there will be no clock issues in all arenas in the NHL,” Campbell told Elliott via 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.”
Campbell’s actions are in response to a clock malfunction incident that took place at the Staples Center in L.A. on Feb. 1. Drew Doughty of the Los Angeles Kings scored the controversial game-winning goal with 0.3 seconds left on the clock against the Columbus Blue Jackets. It was later found that the scoreboard malfunctioned as the time should have expired and the goal should not have counted.
“We now receive live feeds of the overheads so we are not ‘slaved’ to TV waiting to see if they show the overheads,” Campbell explained.
Campbell said the league was “completely satisfied” after interviewing the clock operator at the Staples Center.
Further, the NHL didn’t find any defects in Daktronics, which is the league’s primary scoreboard maker.
