Jon Cooper thinks Avalanche Game 4 OT winner shouldn’t have counted, and he might be right

With their season presumably on the line without a tied 2-2 series, the Lightning laid it all out against the Avalanche (-105) in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday night. Tampa Bay scored a goal 36 seconds in and peppered Colorado netminder Darcy Kuemper with shots (37 saves) throughout the night.

It was apparent the two-time defending Cup champions came to play. Unfortunately, the officiating on the ice might not have brought their A-game.

After a scintillating and tense regulation period, Colorado’s Nazem Kadri scored a mystifying goal to give the Avalanche a 3-2 win and a 3-1 series lead. The hometown fans at Amalie Arena were stunned, as were the Lightning.

But did Kadri actually score a legal, back-breaking, game-winning goal?

According to Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper: No.

Huh? Jon, you can’t throw out accusations like that all willy-nilly without an explanation.

Does anyone have any thoughts on Cooper’s reference?

Oh. Oh, no. If true, that’s simply an officiating mishap that cannot happen at this stage of the season.

“Investigators” on Twitter took to clip-by-clip frames to see if they could back up Cooper’s claims. At first glance, the results were astounding.

It’s worth noting that the NHL’s official game sheets are generated by automatic puck tracking. So, barring a technological mishap, Colorado indeed had six players on the ice.

But wait a minute, the NHL eventually made a manual change:

The suspense is unbearable: I hope it lasts!

This just gets worse and worse for the NHL, doesn’t it?

Okay, I think we all need to sit down and wait for the NHL to clarify this maybe-unacceptable situation perfectly tomorrow morning (LOL, as if).