Did The LA Kings Cheat Columbus?

Tonight, Drew Doughty of the Los Angeles Kings scored the game winning goal against the Columbus with 0.4 seconds left on the clock. Or at least, that's how it will go into the records books. There seems to be some controversy over whether there was a clock malfunction or malfeasance that allowed the Kings an extra half second or two. Daniel Tolensky - the man you'll find tweeting positive stats about Pulver Sports clients whenever they are getting dumped on by Twitter users - was the first to catch the pause in the dying seconds on his twitter feed although there is a bit of a Zapruder quality to that video.

After the jump there's the original video and a selection of other angles.

Tolensky's homemade video. Squint.

Of course, it is possible that the pause was simply on the television feed. Puckurgently assures me that video people are the worst. But, here's a version with the official timer in the corner of screen and it also shows the pause

And to throw a little gasoline on the fire, here is the video that the NHL put up on their website which starts the replay after the pause with 1.8 seconds left.

Are there other explanations? As I mentioned, there is the chance that it was a result of the video feeds. A couple of people mentioned to me that it could have been a result of the timing on the screen catching up to the real time.

Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch had the following post game quote from interim coach Todd Richards:

"I don't have any official word. But watching the replay and talking to our (FS Ohio) producer the clock stopped at 1.8 and stopped for 1.5 seconds. They scored with 0.5 seconds left. I'm really disappointed for the players."

As Chemmy noted, they should probably be happy that they did not get the extra point especially since the Oilers are making their annual charge for the top pick in the draft. They need all of the help they can get. Still, I wonder how the NHL will address the situation.

Update (2:06am)

Gann Matsuda of Frozen Royalty tweeted the following for what it's worth:

#lakings sources close to situation, Doughty's goal at end of game was reviewed by #nhl in Toronto, who told timekeeper to put 0.7 on clock.

Update (11:35am) From Jackets' GM Scott Howson

I spoke with (NHL Senior Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations) Colin Campbell on two occasions after the game. Sometimes in watching the game on television there can be confusion with respect to the game clock. Some television broadcasts use their own game clock that is not official with the rink. However, and after double checking, Colin confirmed that we were actually seeing the official game clock stop for one full second. Therefore, when you do the math, Drew Doughty actually scored 0.4 seconds after time had expired, which means the goal should have been disallowed and should have gone to overtime. Colin has promised me that the NHL will investigate this to try and figure out how this happened.

Did the LA Kings cheat?