The first thing we learned…or…well…were reminded of in game one of the Kraken season, is thanks to months of people going “oh is this finally when Vegas’ wheeling and dealing comes back to haunt them” during the offseason is uh
Reports of their demise, specifically their first line, were greatly exaggerated.
But y’know? Seattle battled back, they took a 3-0 deficit and climbed the ladder! They showed some fight and battled back! Donato, McCann and Geekie got them even!
…And then one of the worst turnovers I’ve ever seen in my life caused a major kerfuffle, ending in Chandler Stephenson deflecting the puck in off his body and ultimately scoring the game winner. Yes, a thing you can do, but it put the Kraken on the end of one of the funnest things that can ever happen in the NHL…a discussion of the rules.
See, there’s a lot of people who look at the way Chandler Stephenson got that puck into the net as a distinct kicking motion, something that is verboten by the rules of the NHL, a replay for you here:
Should Dearest Grubert have kept low to prevent this? Maybe. Should that turnover have happened to spring the Knights for that kind of thing? Absolutely not and it’s not even the most egregious one committed yesterday. There’s plenty of things that could’ve been done to prevent that goal from happening.
The rule that governs this is Rule 78.5, section 2, which goes over disallowed goals. Emphasis mine:
As with any rule in sports, it often comes up to an “objective” reading of the sport (was there a wind up on that leg?) or a “subjective” reading of the sport (he pretty obviously turned his leg to help deflect it in, which could be described as a distinct kicking motion)
As for me? Well, I am on team “do not turn the puck over on your own blue line when you just got the tying goal”, but I can definitely see how people could come down on it either way.
What makes it so funny is that…yeah, it’s how the NHL works. The Kraken didn’t just become a franchise, have their first game and lose it…they lost it in the most NHL way possible; a bunch of bizarre plays leading to weird goals, climb back into a game, maybe get punked out by a rule, and then lose. That’s just incredible.
I knew we could be weird like the rest of this insane division. And we’ve done it.
Now please never do it again.
So I leave it to you to argue about debate. Do you think the Kraken got a little jobbed out here?
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