A new camera angle sparks controversy, and it gets worse for the Canadiens and NHL
Phillip Danault gave Martin St-Louis a case to rage about after a waved-off goal turned into the biggest story of Montreal's night.
This wasn't about a routine review or a harmless bounce in the crease.
It was a major playoff moment, and the new angle only made the call look worse for the Canadiens.
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Danault appeared to score what should have been Montreal's third goal in the second period against the Buffalo Sabres at the Bell Centre.
Instead, the officials ruled the play dead after deciding Alex Lyon had been pushed into the net.
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That explanation didn't hold up once the replay started making the rounds.
The clearest angle shows the puck crossing the line before the goalie is forced backward, which changed the entire feel of the sequence.
The replay made the controversy even bigger
That's why this one blew past the usual fan outrage and landed in a different place.
Analysts pushed back hard, and the reaction didn't stop in Montreal.
Even Buffalo coverage joined the pile-on, which tells you how obvious the sequence looked once the replay was slowed down.
But after watching the replay, like the Zapruder movie...
It looks like the puck went in before Lyon was pushed.
But I'm not a referee either."
Rachel Lenzi, who covers the Sabres, openly questioned the decision after reviewing the play from multiple angles.
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That matters because writers almost never go out of their way to challenge a ruling that worked in their own team's favor.
Eric Engels also rejected the idea that Danault clearly drove Lyon into the crease in a way that erased the goal.
Jeremy Filosa went even further, arguing the puck was already in before the contact and that Danault looked like the player getting shoved on the play.
That's the key point now.
This no longer looks like a borderline call that could go either way.
It looks like a goal that was taken off the board in a one-goal playoff swing, with the NHL's review process back under pressure again.
And that's where the real damage sits for Montreal.
The puck appears to have gone into the net before contact with the goalie, and Danault clearly appears to have been pushed into the goalie by a Sabres player."
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When a team feels a goal was wiped out by a bad read, the frustration doesn't stay on one shift.
It follows the bench, it follows the locker room, and it puts the spotlight right back on playoff officiating.
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YESTERDAY
MAY 11, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Martin Necas | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Ross Colton | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nazem Kadri | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Parker Kelly | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nathan MacKinnon | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Brock Nelson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nico Sturm | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Danila Yurov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jack Drury | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Brock Faber | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Quinn Hughes | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nicolas Roy | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Vladimir Tarasenko | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jack Ahcan | - | - | - | |
| Mackenzie Blackwood | - | - | - | |
| Zach Bogosian | - | - | - | |
| Matthew Boldy | - | - | - | |
| Brent Burns | - | - | - | |
| Marcus Foligno | - | - | - | |
| Nick Foligno | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||