While I do believe that game officials are not the cause of a team winning or losing, I also do believe that mistakes by officials do have varying degrees of impact on the game.
In a college football game, I once forgot to spot the ball when I was standing only 3 feet away. Just a brain fart. No damage though. (Not my worst error though.
)
The error by this official does raise some "ifs". However, I think this error is one of the most impactful that I have ever seen in a hockey game.
He is a veteran official. Happens to the best of them.
Imagine this play happened with 5 minutes gone by in the 1st period. People would be a lot less likely to talk about the blown call.
In both football and basketball, we remind ourselves that people remember the last 2 minutes of the game more than the first 2 minutes.