This morning, the NHL announced that goaltender interference calls would be decided by the Situation Room in Toronto. I caught up with Flower and asked him what he thought of that.
The NHL Board of Governors has approved the change to the goalie interference review rule, allowing final authority to be made in the Situation Room in Toronto with a former referee in the room involved in the decision-making process. Change goes into effect tomorrow.
HockeyBuzz: Today, they announced that goalie interference calls would go to the situation room in Toronto now.
Marc-Andre Fleury: Today they did? How about last night?
HB: Too late for last night. (laughs) Is it a good move to let the situation room get involved?
MAF: I think it'll be good because it'll always be the same group of people who make the decisions on every goal, every game. It might be a little more consistent. At least, I hope so.
Last night, I could talk to the ref and see what he thought. He explained why he called it that way. I didn't agree, but at least I could get an explanation.
HB: What did they tell you last night?
MAF: I wasn't happy at all.
What did he say? He said my feet were in the crease, but my blocker was a little bit above the line. That's where [Comeau] clipped me. [The ref told me] he didn't do it on purpose. And he pushed me toward the puck.
HB: (laughs) So he helped you make the save? That's so nice of him. You should send him a thank you note.
MAF: Yeah, yeah. Thanks for pushing me the right way.
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HockeyBuzz: Oscar, how close do you feel to a return?
Oscar Lindberg: It's been two practices with the team. I've only skated four times since the injury. Trying to get timing and tempo back. I just started skating a couple days ago.
HB: What are your thoughts on the Kyle Clifford hit?
OL: It was a blindside hit. It wasn't a clean hit. But it's in the past, trying to look forward now.
HB: What do you feel more comfortable at, center or wing?
OL: I feel that I play equally [well] at center and wing. Wherever they want to put me.
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Since 1960, just six true expansion teams (in the four major US sports leagues) have made the playoffs in their first season.
The 1966-67 Chicago Bulls made the post-season in an NBA where eight of the league's 10 teams qualified.
The 1967-68 Philadelphia Flyers, Los Angeles Kings, St. Louis Blues, and Minnesota North Stars made the post-season in an NHL where eight of the league's 12 teams qualified. Also, the NHL placed all six of that year's expansion entries in the West Division, guaranteeing four first-year playoff berths.
Last night, the Vegas Golden Knights made the post-season in an NHL where just 16 of the league's 31 teams will qualify.
Winning Play
About halfway into the game, Brayden McNabb took a holding penalty. While Vegas was up 1-0 at this point, Colorado had dominated 5v5 action -- by my count, they were outchancing the Knights 7-1.
The hockey gods are indeed fickle, but there was no doubt that Colorado deserved better than being down. However, the penalty-killing unit of Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Tomas Nosek, Nate Schmidt, and Colin Miller continued to deny the Avs their just desserts with this memorable stand:
Bellemare-Nosek-Schmidt-Miller were out there for 1:57 of a two-minute power play; they allowed just two shots from the perimeter and blocked three Avalanche bids.
"We did a good job to stay focused on seam passes, eliminated those passes from going through the house," said Nosek.
"At the right time, we blocked shots. When you block shots, it's not just that the shot doesn't go through you, you create frustration for the power play," added Belleamre. "Next time, the guy who shot it, he might have a shooting lane, but he might not take it because he feels like you're going to block it."
But even these timely blocks couldn't get this PK unit off the ice.
"When you're tired, you don't have the power to push down and be aggressive," remarked Nosek. "Just keep a tight box, that's what we did."
Bellemare agreed, "You can't skate that hard [after a while] because you create openings. [Tomas and I] were both gassed, so we cooled down and stayed in the shooting lanes. When you're not pressuring that hard, you have to be ready to eat the puck."
"The MacKinnon one-timer is probably their biggest weapon, we tried to eliminate that, keep them outside the dots," observed Nosek.
Miller noted, "It sucked."
Pluses
Down 2-1, Colorado let the game slip away in the first three minutes of the final frame, allowing three straight outnumbered attacks and one Shea Theodore dagger.
"Trying to do too much early and pucks come back on you. We were feeling like we had to win the game in the first shift or the first three or four shifts," admitted Jared Bednar. "The next thing you know, there’s four or five scoring chances. They scored on one of them and put it out of reach."
It was this Marchessault late second period tally which put Colorado behind and caused them to chase the game:
Fun moment on #VegasBorn bench between Tatar & Marchessault after Marchessault's goal.
Tatar revealed, laughing, "I felt like I shot the same shot [the shift] before. I told him, 'Your shot was an upgrade.' " pic.twitter.com/0T57RlWJgj
By itself, this play by Haula is totally fine. But in a period where the Knights failed time after time to challenge the Avs -- they had zero quality scoring chances, by my count, in the first -- a shot mentality wouldn't have hurt.
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