After five years of writing about this garage league, we thought we had seen it all.

But just when we thought the NHL couldn't get much worse, the league did what everyone thought it couldn't - it ruined the last game of the Stanley Cup finals.

Brett Hull by Meredith Martini

Brett Hull scored the game-winning goal in triple overtime of Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals. The goal, a rebound shot past a sprawled Dominik Hasek, brought the Cup to Dallas for the first time in team history.

Or did it? After further review by ESPN, a replay clearly showed that Hull's left skate was in the crease before he poked home the rebound. But did the league do anything about it? No. The NHL let the biggest goal of the year stand without a second look.

In other words, after an entire season of goals being disallowed by a punk-ass goal crease rule, the league decided the last goal of the season was above the rules. With the Stanley Cup on the line, the league looked the other way.

So much for being unbiased. So much for sticking to their guns. So much for standing up for a "black-and-white" issue.

Sure, the league will say they reviewed the play. Here's a token quote from the league's director of officiating, Bryan Lewis.

"Every such goal has been reviewed by the NHL since the start of the season, including this one," Lewis said. "If you notice - and I can't tell you how long it took - the officials stood at the penalty bench. They don't leave that area until they have been given a signal by us. How long did that take, I apologize. I can't answer that."

And sure, the league will say it sent out a memo to NHL teams on March 25 stating the new "rule change", despite the fact that it didn't tell the fans or, apparently, the referees who continued to call the rule in the same, idiotic way. Perhaps this is what really happened. The game was close to being the longest in playoff history, and for the sake of national television rights, people in high places wanted it to end so SportsCenter could air. For the sake of Czar Bettman's plan for world domination in terms of southern expansion of the NHL, it would be perfect for a team from Dallas to win the Cup. And for the sake of trying not to look like asses, the league refused to let the same punk-ass goal crease rule that frustrated fans the entire season interfere with the outcome of the Stanley Cup winner.

But instead of trying not to look like asses, the league did the opposite. It made itself look like complete and total asses.

By not sticking to the original rules from the beginning of the season, the league went back on everything it stood for the last three years. Despite all of the bitching and complaining from fans and, well, LCS Hockey, the league had stood firm on the goal-crease rule. But now, after much agony and torture, the league decided not to play by the same rules it had the previous three seasons.

For the first time ever, Lewis pulled out of his magical hat the following explanation as to why the rule wasn't enforced:

"The debate here seems to be did he or did he not have possession and control. Our words from upstairs and our view was that, yes, he did. He played the puck from his foot to his stick, shot and scored. ...A puck that rebounds off the goalie, the goal post, an opposing player is not deemed to be a change of possession and therefore Hull would be in possession ... even though the one foot would be in the crease in advance of the puck."

So why, if this is the case, has this part of the rule never been enforced before? Perhaps some of you might remember a goal Pierre Turgeon thought he scored a few years back. Turgeon had the puck behind the opponent's net, he circled around one side and used a wrap-around to score a goal. But the goal was called back because Turgeon's own skate was in the crease before the puck was. Under the "new" interpretation of the rules, that goal should have counted.

And another thing. Under this interpretation, we'd have to suppose that if Sergei Zubov takes a shot from the point, he is still in possession of the puck after the shot is deflected off the goalie and the rebound goes into the corner. As the puck enters the corner, Zubov would technically still have control of the puck. Does that sound right? No, because it isn't.

The Buffalo Sabres were furious after the call wasn't made. And they should have been.

Sabres' coach Lindy Ruff actually approached Gary Bettman after the game and demanded an explaination. Bettman turned his back and walked the other way.

"He almost looked to me like he knew this might be a tainted goal and there was no answer for it," Ruff said. "I just wanted an explanation. Is it a good goal (or) not a good goal?"

Joey Juneau had some harsh words about the incident.

"I really think that if we had scored a goal like that, it would have been called back," Juneau said. "I think because it was a goal that gave them the Stanley Cup, everybody jumped on the ice and they were afraid to make the call. It was our team that had scored the goal, it would have been called back and we would still be in overtime.

"They (Dallas) played hard, you don't want to take anything away from their team, but I believe everybody will remember this as the Stanley Cup that was never won in '99. It was given away to a good team, but the goal was not a legal goal."

Adding insult to injury, just two days after the phantom goal, the league decided to do away with video replay of goals altogether. Bettman said the rule change had nothing to do with Hull's goal. He said the league was more concerned that the game would lose some of its spontaneity when play is stopped for video reviews.

Spontaneity? How about losing its credibility as a major professional sport in North America?

"We're relying too much on replays," Bettman said and smiled, knowing he has spiked another dagger through the heart of a once pure and proud game. "The rule (on Hull's goal) was absolutely, correctly applied. Everyone understands it was the right call."

Everyone except the millions of hockey fans around the world who have be force-fed a black-and-white in the crease rule for the past three seasons, only to see it not used in the most important game of all. That includes Ruff, who is probably still replaying the goal over and over in his sleep.

"All I wanted was a review," Ruff said. "All I wanted was a review."

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