Unfortunately for viewers at home, there were two losers in game 7 of the playoff series between the Florida Panthers and Toronto Maple Leafs. One being the Toronto Maple Leafs who haven’t been able to make it past the second round in the Stanley Cup playoffs since 2002, and the other being TNT broadcasting who committed the grave sin of missing the broadcasting of a goal during an elimination game!

The moment occurred at the 9:24 mark of the third period when Sam Reinhart scored a goal, pushing it to 5-1 for the Panthers, and while the TNT commentary managed to catch that bit, saying, seemingly out of nowhere, “and Reinhart just scored, Reinhart just put the puck into the back of the net.” The visuals being broadcast told a completely different story. The video was one of Niko Mikkola taking the puck from behind Florida’s goal.

When the second commentator came in with, “That makes it 5-1 Florida with 10.36 remaining.” the issue had finally been corrected and TNT viewers were able to see a replay of the missed moment, with Reinhart pushing the puck past Joseph Woll and then hugging Aaron Ekblad in celebration. But it really isn’t the same as watching it live, and fans are infuriated.

Fan reactions to TNT blunder during game 7 between the Florida Panthers and Toronto Maple Leafs

One fan tried to find the balance, writing, “TNT is fun but they are the definition of amateur hour. ESPN is better than TNT overall when it comes to hockey.” And TNT doesn’t seem to have to tried to disprove their amateur status anytime over these playoffs. Earlier on a hockey reporter found out they were streaming an opening game with remote commentary. This wasn’t a good look, and things only seemed to go downhill.

Another fan tried to take it to the next level, tweeting a TNT account directly, “@NHL_On_TNT horrible broadcasting in that moment.” The fan even took his time to add a word of advice, “Director should be fired for not going pic in pic for live action. I’ve had rookies in the live truck do better than that.” To miss the screening of a live goal in an elimination game is indeed unforgivable, though Leafs fans might have been grateful not to have seen blow number 5 firsthand.

Another fan provided a meta-analysis of the whole thing, writing, “Producers for sports broadcasts should be sports fans. Stop trying to tell a story or create a narrative and just show the game as if you’re in the arena. Crowd noise up, just show live stats and key replays.” 

This was probably alluding to the fact that whoever was in charge of the videos on TNT’s side got pretty carried away with replays rather than the live stats, causing other fans to also write, “The montage of missed Panthers penalties they were showing when the goal went in was just too long…” and “Going by replays only, I have it 11-3 Panthers.”

Hopefully, TNT gets it together in time for round 3, if not the finals at least, else why is anyone paying for this sort of broadcasting?