The great Mitch Hedberg once said (and just skip down for the hockey part of this column) that being a comedian put him on the right side of what he found to be an amusing standard. 

"I've got a great job,” he said. “I can talk for 45 minutes straight. If someone says one word, you're [expletive] out of here."

That’s kind of what it’s like being an NHL goaltender these days. A goalie has his crease and personal space and that needs to be respected, but based on officiating this season, going anywhere near the net or the goaltender is enough to get a goal disallowed or land a player in the box for goaltender interference. 

Perhaps because of Milan Lucic’s hit on Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller last season, the refs clearly are making a greater attempt to protect goalies. With that has come an increase in them calling goaltender interference, with each call seemingly more controversial than the last. 

“They're very sensitive to that, and it's not just us,” Claude Julien said Tuesday. “It's all around the league. They've really tightened up and maybe they're sending a message to everybody to kind of stay away from the goaltenders. Once we start being a little better about that, they might soften up a little bit on those calls.”

This past weekend featured three brutal calls, two of which came Saturday night in Toronto. The Maple Leafs were denied the game-tying goal in the first period when Chris Kelly bumped Nazem Kadri into Tuukka Rask as Cody Franson fired a shot from the point into the net. Rask was outside the crease and went down convincingly on the play. He called for goalie interference immediately and he got it, despite Kadri doing nothing wrong. 

Later in the game, James Reimer was outside of his net as Brad Marchand came flaying in, tripping over the Leafs goalie and crashing into the end boards. He didn’t return to the game due what appeared to be a shoulder injury, but when Patrice Bergeron threw a shot off Tyler Seguin and past Reimer later in the play, it was called no goal.

The worst of the bunch came in Sunday’s Canadiens-Senators game. With the Habs holding onto a 2-1 lead in the third period, André Benoit appeared to tie the game with a shot from the point that beat Carey Price, but the goal was waved off due to goaltender interference called against Ottawa’s Jakob Silfverberg. He was given a minor penalty for the play, though replays showed that minimal (as in, really, really minimal) contact was made while Silfverberg was screening at least a foot outside the crease. 

Rule 69.4 states “If an attacking player initiates any contact with a goalkeeper, other than incidental contact, while the goalkeeper is outside his goal crease, and a goal is scored, the goal will be disallowed.” 

It was clearly incidental contact, but it cost the Senators a goal, a penalty and the game, as that 2-1 score held up. Too many bad goaltender interference calls have been made this season to chalk it up to refs being rusty at the start of the season. It’s being called consistently, and a precedent is being set. It’s a pretty terrible precedent. 

“To be bluntly honest, it was questionable on Tuukka,” Julien admitted, “and then it was obviously extremely questionable on Brad. Reimer sticks his pad out to start with and trips Marchand outside of the crease to start with and then we score.“

Through the first two games of the season, Rask actually drew more penalties than any other player, as Rangers forward Brian Boyle was called for a questionable goaltender interference call in the season-opener, with Evander Kane being sent off for the same infraction when the B’s faced the Jets. 

Rask says he hasn’t felt that he’s in any better position to get calls this season than he had in seasons past, but the proof seems to be in the pudding. If you’re being screened in front and the other team scores, you might get it taken off the board and maybe even squeeze a power play out of it. 

“I don't know if they're keeping a closer eye on those or not, but calls are made during the play,” Rask said. “Sometimes they're questionable, sometimes they're not. I know that [people have said] I was flopping around [against the Maple Leafs].

“I know they're tough calls for referees to make, too,” he added. “Sometimes goalies like to challenge and come out of the crease a little bit and then they get bumped so it's kind of tough to not make that call, but it's a fine line, too. I'm sure the referees have been told to keep an eye on those and to try to make the right call.”

Regardless of what they’re being told, they’re making the wrong call -- or the unnecessary call -- too often. So what’s the solution? If the refs are going to have a never-ending goalie-interference party, the coaches should be allowed to challenge them (as suggested by Yahoo! Sports' Greg Wyshynski). It might slow down the game a bit, but isn’t getting the score of the game correct important?

Claude Julien seems to like the idea, but he isn’t holding his breath for it to happen.

“It's been talked a lot about over the last few years about giving us one challenge with the same old thing as football: If you're wrong, you lose your timeout and whatever. A lot of things have been thrown into the conversation here, but the one thing they want to do with this game … they're really trying to speed up the game. Having said that, I know the intermission has been extended by a minute or so,” he said with a laugh. 

“When the game is being played, they really want to not have too many delays. They've got reviews already on goals, so I think adding that for now, I guess they seem to think it's going to slow the game too much.”

One way or another, the issue needs to be resolved, either by getting the calls under control or otherwise. As is, it’s clearly interfering with the game.