from Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe,

There are two linesmen out there. All in all, they do a tremendous job, a point by the way I don’t believe anyone is arguing. And just as I’m willing to live with, shall we say, inconsistencies in home plate umpires calling balls and strikes, I’m OK if the guys in stripes are off an inch or two with their calls on plays that are 64 feet away from going in the net.

Through the middle of last week, with a grand total of 1,053 games played, there had been 69 coaching challenges on blue line calls. A total of 27 (39.1 percent) resulted in the linesmen’s calls being ruled incorrect and goals being wiped off the scoreboard because the play was indeed offside. In a league starving for offense, those lost goals hurt, but that’s a discussion (a lengthy one) for another day. Overall, with 27 errors recorded, we’re talking a fraction more than one — that’s one — play a week gone wrong.

Call me crazy, but I’m willing to live with the human element of officiating when it’s proven wrong roughly once a week on total number of offside calls that I’m not sure even astronomer Carl “Billions and Billions’’ Sagan could have quantified. If only the rest of my life was off by a mere inch or two about only once a week.

I understand striving for perfection, but if you’re taking out the hockey ruler, just make sure the net really measures 4 x 6 feet, the puck is 3 inches in diameter, and the boards open wide enough to wheel out the Zamboni. Then just drop the puck and let the boys play, the adults in stripes officiate.

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