Nashville Predators News & Notes
Nashville Predators 2, Edmonton Oilers 3: Bad Officiating Leads to Bad Results | On the Forecheck
Hot take of the morning: embellishment is a bad thing to have as a penalty. It’s not called consistently; it punishes players who are smaller or off-balance; and it gives officials an out by giving them an opportunity to make it 4v4 when they need to call a penalty and don’t want to. Also, frankly, sometimes it seems like a player has to embellish to make the refs even notice that someone cross-checked them in the head or yanked their leg out from under them, so maybe if the refs did their jobs better…?
Other News & Notes
Five Things to Look for at the 2020 NWHL All-Star Game | NWHL
It’s at 1:30 Central, and streaming is free (the link is in the article), so if you’re looking for some fun hockey without terrible officiating this afternoon…
IOC, IIHF want to address NHL’s issues for 2022 Olympics | Sportsnet.ca
The problem that the IOC has is that, by comparison, Gary Bettman looks trustworthy and filled with integrity.
Opponents helpless vs. Alex Ovechkin | ProHockeyTalk | NBC Sports
I truly don’t know how he does it, but it’s fun as anything to watch (as long as the Caps aren’t playing the Preds, anyway).
How Nunavut hockey’s ‘band of brothers’ sparked a new era for the North | Sportsnet.ca
I can’t even imagine having a hobby I have to get to, regularly, either by air or by snowmobile. These kids are putting in a phenomenal amount of effort–good for them.
Players reflect on the past and future of the USA, Canada rivalry | The Ice Garden
I haven’t made any secret of the fact that I think it’s messed up and bad for the sport that the gold-medal games in women’s hockey have almost always been between the USA and Canada (the only way Finland’s 2019 silver could have been better would have been if the referees hadn’t robbed them of gold), but hey, at least it builds big narrative drama between those two teams.
Boko Imama fought Brandon Manning in first AHL meeting since racist incident | ProHockeyTalk | NBC Sports
Half of me wants to say that as reasons for hockey fights go this beats the heck out of “we agreed to try to punch each other in the hopes that our team would be the one to play better afterwards.” The other half of me is stuck on how weird it is that in hockey this is fine and normal, but in real life if you beat up someone for using a racial slur it’s assault.
For Team Canada’s Annie King, Yellowknife will always be home | Sportsnet.ca
Hockey Day in Canada is teaching me all kinds of things about Canadian geography, as well as letting me read more about players and teams I wouldn’t necessarily have heard of.