The Colorado Avalanche strongly disputed the referees’ ruling to assess key forward Nathan MacKinnon a match penalty for goaltender obstruction in their 4-3 defeat to the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night.
Barely 37 seconds before the end of the second period and Colorado having a man advantage, MacKinnon drove forcefully towards the goal as Brock Nelson fed him the puck. As MacKinnon deflected the puck off target, Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse plunged into him, with his head making contact with MacKinnon’s hip. MacKinnon crashed into Oilers netminder Connor Ingram, sending him sprawling. Ingram would depart the ice unassisted with a laceration above his eye.
The officials assessed MacKinnon a severe penalty for obstructing the netminder, which entails an immediate match penalty, and confirmed the decision following video assessment. Ingram was succeeded by Tristan Jarry, who thwarted 11 of 12 attempts in the Oilers’ victory.
“It’s highly improbable he would have collided with the netminder had Nurse not run into him,” stated Avalanche coach Jared Bednar. “Whether he sustained an injury or not is irrelevant, whether it’s a forceful impact or a minor one. That does not warrant a penalty. When your own players push opponents into your netminder, it’s not considered an infraction.”
Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said Ingram was barred from re-entering the contest owing to the NHL’s concussion guidelines, but mentioned he felt fine post-game.
The Avalanche successfully negated the five-minute major infraction given to MacKinnon but ultimately succumbed in the match on a man-advantage goal by Oilers star Connor McDavid in the third period.
Knoblauch remarked the MacKinnon penalty was a “challenging call” for the officials to make.
“Obviously you have to safeguard your netminders. It was unintentional, but you must exercise caution around netminders. Obviously, they forfeited a valuable player,” he conveyed.
Bednar said he did not receive an adequate explanation about MacKinnon’s severe infraction by the officials.
“Is the goalie’s injury the reason for a five-minute penalty? I honestly couldn’t care less if their netminder is injured. That responsibility falls on their defensemen, not our player,” he asserted.
MacKinnon’s teammates said they were also perplexed by the decision.
“Nate possesses some of the finest positional awareness in the entire league. He wouldn’t intentionally veer into the netminder in such a manner,” commented defenseman Cale Makar. “The rationale provided by the officials was that [Nurse] did not sufficiently push him.”
Center Nazem Kadri felt MacKinnon endeavored to steer clear of Ingram.
“He was lunging over the upper part of the crease in an attempt to evade. That’s an element of the regulation, requiring the player to demonstrate at least some form of endeavor. Evident contact occurred, and I cannot comprehend how that amounted to a five-minute major penalty,” Kadri opined.
Both Bednar and Kadri were unimpressed with the refereeing generally in the game, particularly during the final period.
“It was somewhat unbalanced this evening,” Kadri stated.
“I won’t solely attribute it to the refereeing yet it’s inherent to the sport. We’re playing a man down and enduring slashes. Nelson outmaneuvers an opponent in the neutral zone and is then tripped … that’s precisely why penalties exist,” Bednar explained. “That’s where my exasperation stems from. I believed our team handled that situation fairly well.”