Kings General Manager Dean Lombardi said there is a scientific explanation for the apparent hesitation by the scoreboard clock at Staples Center on Wednesday night that preceded the last-second goal by Drew Doughty in the Kings' 3-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Times colleague Lisa Dillman asked Lombardi to respond to comments on the goal made by Blue Jackets General Manager Scott Howson. Here's Lombardi's email reply:
"Those clocks are sophisticated instruments that calculate time by measuring electrical charges called coulombs – given the rapidity and volume of electrons that move through the measuring device the calibrator must adjust at certain points which was the delay you see. The delay is just recalibrating for the clock moving too quickly during the 10–10ths of a second before the delay. This insures that the actual playing time during a period is exactly 20 minutes.
"That is not an opinion -– that is science -– amazing device quite frankly."
-- Helene Elliott and Lisa Dillman
