FSN Pittsburgh employee suspended
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FSN Pittsburgh employee suspended
FSN Pittsburgh has suspended an employee, the son of a former Penguins player because of a goal-review incident last week against the Flyers at Mellon Arena, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Lowell MacDonald Jr., son of former Penguins player Lowell MacDonald and a member of FSN's telecast staff, was indefinitely suspended by the network. The controversy was a review of a play to determine if Simon Gagne scored a goal in the the second period of a Flyers' victory. FSN Pittsburgh had a replay that showed the puck crossing the goal line but the replay was not sent to the NHL review booth in Toronto. The replay was not aired on local television until after the review was concluded.
The Post-Gazette reported that in a statement, FSN Pittsburgh said, "There is nothing more important than the integrity of the game. During last Thursday's game against the Philadelphia Flyers, a definitive replay of a Flyers goal was not aired prior to the conclusion of the official review and, as a result, a Flyers goal was not awarded. Fortunately, this did not change the outcome of the game. Nonetheless, FSN Pittsburgh's failure to provide video to the league officials in a timely fashion was wholly unacceptable. FSN Pittsburgh has addressed this matter and has taken steps to ensure that such a failure does not occur again."
The Penguins also issued a statement: "We fully support FSN Pittsburgh in its reaction to this issue. The integrity of the game is paramount."
Comments (47)
This stinks of a cover-up. Slap on the wrist, suspend the scapegoat, and hope the matter goes away. This would be a huge controversy if it had happened against anyone but the Flyers, anywhere but Pittsburgh. It really does show that the culture of cheating makes Pittsburgh rotten to the core. A the very least, Gagne should get the goal, because they can prove the goal should have counted without the outside interference of Fox Sports Pittsburgh. The key thing is, how do they make sure this doen't happen when it counts. How can they prove this hasn't happened before, especially in the Pitt, but really anywhere in the league. This makes me wonder about Crosby's kicked goals in last years playoffs, about Kovalev's high stick goal the year before, and even about LeClair's goal through the netting in 2000. I already had little faith in the NHL officiating before this, but now what little trust remained is shattered.— Pelti
My question is...how long has this been going on? Is this the first tim eit has happened or the first time someone was caught? For all we know, this kind of behavior plopped the Cup in their lap last year! I think further investigation is warranted to see if this has happened in the past. Chances are this isnt the first time and I think the team should be sanctioned as well. If it HAS happened on other occasions, and with other teams as well this could be a HUGE scandal and could set the NHL back 30 years! This shouldnt be taken lightly, even the prospect it MAY have happened is disturbing!— Neebo
With all due respect Frank, if FSN Pittsburgh was conspiring to keep this replay from being seen by the NHL, why in the world would they show it on TV? And BTW, you can assume the puck was over the goal line on the replay in question, but in order to overturn the call on the ice, which was no goal, you need to actually see the puck over the line. And you need to see white ice between the puck and the goal line. There is no guarantee that the war room in Toronto would have overturned the call anyway. But please Frank, continue to make a huge deal out of this. If this had happened against Nashville, this blog post just doesn't get posted. It's because it's Pittsburgh that you, Sam and the entire Flyers fan base are acting as if the Penguins are responsible for it. Fact is, they are not. FSN should probably be fined and Lowell MacDonald Jr. should lose his job, but unless the NHL puts an official in every station's video room, there is no way you can guarantee that this sort of thing won't happen again around the league. There's not much the NHL can do about it. Get over it. You won the game and the guy is now fired. Case closed. And to all the other commenters, just take whatever shots at Pittsburgh your tiny little brains can come up with. The fact is, you will grasp at straws and find any little dumb thing like this to try to get back at the Penguins because you are so hurt over the Pens absolutely humiliating your team over the last 3 years.— Crosby Owns Philly- Fact, Colin Campbell ignores the rules in place when dealing with the Penguins. Malkin should have been suspended during the Stanley Cup finals last year. The NHL is so obviously in the tank for the Pens that what little credibility they have is gone with most people. This is just another example of the mickey mouse league it is.
- Hey Cindy wears a diaper,That call would have been overturned without a doubt with that replay.Also,get off of your high horse about the last three years.You cheating pathetic man-lovers seem to forget that the Flyers owned your sorry butts from 1967 until your team tanked several seasons and collected the biggest bunch of whiny girly-men wearing powder puff blue gear ever seen.Just remember we will soon have you back where you belong in the toilet waiting to be crapped on by the Flyers and the rest of the NHL.— philly fan in cheyenne
- If there was a commissioner in the NHL, Gagne would get his "fraud" goad and the final score would be changed..If there was a commissioner in the NHL
What a homer cheater.— road515
Comment removed.- What a skumbag organization! I have the NHL Center Ice Package and get the Penguins FSN feed whenever the Flyers play the Penguins. Their announcers are by far the biggest homers in all of sports. I'm actually OK with home announcers being homers, but they have absolutely no integrity in calling the game. Watching a Penguins broadcast is like when I would watch wrestling as a kid and one of the heels like Bobby The Brain Heenan would announce the match. It is just like that. FSN Pittsburgh is a complete joke.— bleedmidnightgreensection236
- Comment removed.
- If the integrity of the game is paramount, this never would have happened. One can only wonder about the width and breath of the investigation if the reverse had happened, and it was a Flyers broadcaster who did this. I suspect a lot more than just a suspension would be in order.— Phxflyer
- LOL @ Flyers fans thinking that something worse would happen to the Flyers if this had been them instead. If the Flyers do this, the guy responsible gets suspended. I can picture all of you Flyers fans wearing your tin foil hats sticking needles in your Gary Bettman and Sidney Crosby voodoo dolls. You're so pathetic. Ever since the whole thing happened with Nicklas Lidstrom passing on the All-Star game, Red Wings fans have been the same. So you guys should get together with Wings fans and have a big conspiracy theorists party where you bash Bettman and Crosby. Whatever helps you sleep at night. Losers.— Crosby Owns Philly
- Hey AFlyers66, Bettman gave us NOTHING. You're pathetic. The Penguins earned every single one of those picks. They traded up in the draft to get Fleury at #1. The only #1 pick they got was Crosby. And they had 3 balls at the lottery, one of only 3 teams. Because of financial reasons they were forced to trade all their best players. Ownership made some bad decisions and the Mellon Arena is old as hell. Those were the 2 biggest factors that put them in that position. Nothing else. Continue on with your jealousy and rewriting history though.— Crosby Owns Philly
- History Crosby Owns Philly? Oh you mean when your half rate organization tanked the season to get mother Mario and thus the NHL had to put in a lottery for the first pick. You are a troll and Lindstrom has more class on his finger tip than Crosby has in his entire body. I guess its okay to punch players in the crouch since Cindy has nothing to worry about (like you) in the area anyway. Sorry that your club for most of its history has been financially a second rate club that required the league to implement a cap so your team could compete and would not move to Hamilton.— lcd24
- IMAGINE if this happened in Philly!!!!! We would have re-lived snowballs @ Santa, cheering Michael Irvin and all the other nonsense. KING~out— IamtheKING
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Frequent Flyers is your home for news and analysis of all things orange and black.
Reach Frank at seravaf@phillynews.com.
Frank Seravalli
Daily News Sports Columnist
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