Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. As a Yankees fan, I’m not upset that the Red Sox’ firing of Alex Cora seems to have created more problems than it’s solved.
In today’s SI:AM:
🏈 Breer’s draft takeaways
👑 SEC still rules the draft
⚾ Canning Cora won’t fix Sox
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Goal or no goal?
The Oilers’ chances of reaching a third consecutive Stanley Cup Final are fading quickly, having fallen behind 3–1 in their first-round series against the Ducks after a controversial finish to Game 4 on Sunday night.
Less than three minutes into overtime, Anaheim center Ryan Poehling tossed the puck in front of the net from below the left faceoff circle. It deflected off the skate of Edmonton’s Darnell Nurse and through the legs of goalie Tristan Jarry. Poehling and the rest of his Ducks teammates thought it was a goal. The officials weren’t so sure. After a conversation on the ice, they ruled it a good goal, but the final determination would be made by a replay review.
The decision to call it a goal on the ice was critical because it meant that the review would have to determine there was indisputable evidence it wasn’t a goal to overturn the call. The problem was that there wasn’t solid proof of either option. The best view of whether the puck had fully crossed the line was blocked by Jarry’s skate. It looked like enough of the puck had crossed the line to make it a good goal, but there was no way to tell for sure. Ultimately, after a lengthy review, the call on the ice was upheld and the Ducks won the game.
“I can’t see it going in,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “I can’t see the line. ... The [initial] goal call on the ice was probably about 60 to 90 seconds after [the shot], maybe even more. They huddled when they got to center ice and then they made the [initial] call that it was a good goal. I don’t know. Wasn’t very definitive.”
Poehling, on the other hand, said the ruling jived with what he saw.
“I thought I saw some white [ice] when I was behind the net. Then everybody was celebrating,” he said.
The Oilers can’t solely blame the flukey goal for why they lost the game. They took a 2–0 lead in the first period, then watched it evaporate when they allowed a pair of power-play goals in the second. Edmonton retook the lead early in the third period, but blew it again with 6:29 left to play.
The Oilers now head back to Edmonton needing to win three straight games to salvage their season. Doing so will be difficult with their best player, Connor McDavid, not at the top of his game. McDavid was shaken up in Game 1 after getting tangled with teammate Mattias Ekholm and has not looked 100% since. McDavid and Knoblauch both shook off questions about the star’s health.
Edmonton also has goaltending concerns. Connor Ingram started the first three games of the series, allowing five goals in Game 2 and six goals in Game 3. He saved just 84.9% of the shots he faced, leading Knoblauch to bench him for Game 4. Jarry’s start on Sunday was his first since April 7.
The Ducks are seeking their first playoff series victory since 2017, when they advanced all the way to the conference finals. Anaheim has turned things around this season, though, thanks in large part to its impressive young core. Its three leading scorers this season—Cutter Gauthier, Leo Carlsson and Beckett Sennecke—are 22, 21 and 20, respectively. Combine that with veteran leadership from guys like Mikael Granlund, Chris Kreider and Jacob Trouba, and you have a recipe for success. Now they’re one win away from a trip to the second round.
The best of Sports Illustrated
- In his 2026 NFL draft takeaways, Albert Breer details how the Rams landed on Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson at No. 13 and why the Chiefs moved up in the draft.
- While the Big Ten dominated the early part of the draft, Bryan Fischer argues that the SEC proved that it is the league of preference for NFL teams.
- Conor Orr reveals the best and worst moments and decisions of the 2026 NFL draft.
- Gilberto Manzano took in the sights and sounds of Pittsburgh as the Steel City brought huge crowds and energy while hosting this year’s draft.
- Tom Verducci believes the Red Sox’ season was doomed from the start and firing manager Alex Cora will not change the franchise’s fortunes.
- Nelly Korda became the first American woman to win three majors before turning 28 in over 40 years, writes Max Schreiber.
The top five…
… things I saw yesterday:
5. A nice diving stop and flip with the glove from Rockies prospect Ethan Holliday.
4. Derrick White’s hustle on a fantastic chasedown block. (He had a similar play earlier in the game to deny Joel Embiid.)
3. A massive wreck involving 26 of the 30 cars in the field at the NASCAR race at Talladega.
2. Rob Refsnyder’s game-winning home run after successfully challenging a called strike three.
1. The finish to the London Marathon. Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe won with a world-record time of 1:59:30, becoming the first person to finish under two hours in a sanctioned race. Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha and Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo also finished under the previous world record time (2:00:35).
This article was originally published on www.si.com as SI:AM | Controversial Overtime Goal Call Pushes Oilers to the Brink.
