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Morning Skate: The NHL, still, has no idea what goaltender interference is
The latest rule controversy to hit the NHL? Good old goaltender interference.
Lace ’em up. Time for the Morning Skate.
Over the last few years, the most maligned NHL rule was the offside review. While there’s still occasional controversy on the rule’s uses and verdicts, it’s been a bad past few days for the goaltender interference rule.
On Thursday alone, goaltender interference was used twice to nullify NHL goals seemingly up to snuff. First, the Ottawa Senators had a goal taken back less than four minutes into their tilt with the Detroit Red Wings thanks to a bit of contact from Zack Smith.
Then, the Tampa Bay Lightning suffered a similar fate with a tie-breaking goal against the New York Rangers that would have put them ahead in the third period.
While the Senators eventually won their game against the Red Wings, the Lightning ultimately suffered their second overtime loss of the season instead of taking a potential lead in the final moments of the game. Of course, no one would be talking about the calls if they were blatant moments of interference. However, both no-goal calls seemingly had nothing wrong with them, outside of what seems to be incidental contact between the opposing player and netminder.
It’s a hard rule to get right, but the inconsistency between games and referees has made the call torture to sit through for many hockey fans. Just another day in the NHL, it seems.
One sentence recaps
- Bruins 2, Golden Knights 1: The first losing stretch has hit for Vegas despite an overall better game from netminder Maxime Lagace.
- Capitals 4, Islanders 3: Lars Eller scored twice as the Capitals took down their Metropolitan Division rivals.
- Senators 3, Red Wings 1: Ottawa avoids a three-game losing streak thanks to a 30-shot effort against Detroit.
- Rangers 2, Lightning 1 (OT): Rangers survive a Lightning comeback with J.T. Miller’s overtime tally.
- Blue Jackets 7, Panthers 3: Florida had to turn to Antti Niemi in net for relief halfway through, and it didn’t go so well.
- Flyers 2, Blues 0: Ivan Provorov had a statement game on defense anchoring a very inexperienced Flyers blue line.
- Wild 6, Canadiens 3: Six different Minnesota players scored as the Wild ran over Montreal with a three-goal first period.
- Jets 5, Stars 2: Mark Scheifele netted a hat trick and won a game of rock-paper-scissors all in one night.
- Avalanche 5, Hurricanes 3: Despite putting up 60 shots on goal, netminder Semyon Varlamov had the Hurricanes’ number all night.
- Flames 2, Penguins 1 (OT): Mark Giordano got the best of the Penguins in overtime in a low-scoring affair.
- Sabres 5, Coyotes 4: Buffalo survives a wild ending despite giving up three third period goals.
- Kings 5, Maple Leafs 3: The Kings jumped out to a five-goal lead early, but the persistance of the Maple Leafs made this a game in no time.
More hockey
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- Jeff Gorton is leaving Alain Vigneault -- and the Rangers -- in no man’s land.
- Corey Crawford and three other NHL goaltenders are carrying their teams right now.
- Could the 2017-18 Devils be for real 11 games into the new season?
- The Colorado Avalanche need to figure out where Nikita Zadorov fits in their lineup.
- The Stars have the league’s most lethal power play, but there’s a catch.
- The Team USA and Team Canada 2018 Winter Olympics jerseys are awful.
- We’ve been mispronouncing Conor Sheary’s name wrong all along.
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