Sports
O’Reilly will return before the playoffs; GMs discussing rule changes
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Ryan O’Reilly Toronto Maple LeafsChris Johnston: It’s encouraging news from the Leafs’ end of things as Kyle Dubas said, definitively, that Ryan O’Reilly will be back before the playoffs. That wasn’t necessarily in total question but they’ve been more vague with his timeline previous to this, especially after he suffered that broken left index finger earlier this month.
An interesting thing that Kyle Dubas noted was that the nature of the break was an encouraging one. It was a clean break and one that should heal pretty well. They are expecting O’Reilly to resume skating this week with an anticipated return of a little sooner than when the playoffs start five weeks from now.
Are there updates on other injured players around the league?
Mark Stone Vegas Golden KnightsDarren Dreger: There are injury issues for a number of clubs around the National Hockey League. It’s a delicate time of year as you approach the later stages of the second half of the regular season.
The Colorado Avalanche have announced that Artturi Lehkonen is going to be out for several weeks. There has not been much of an update coming from the Vegas Golden Knights about Mark Stone because he’s been out for a period of time now but he needs that much more before they have a better idea of where he’s at and whether or not he can be a playoff participant.
You think of Ryan O’Reilly and you think of Mark Stone and they are the heartbeats of their organizations in many respects.
What discussions have taken place about potential rule changes, like the expansion of the coach’s challenge?
D.J. SmithJohnston: I’d say this is the early stage of discussion. I don’t expect that when the meetings wrap on Wednesday, we’ll be having a formal change to the rule. At this point, I think they’re wrestling with the idea of “What do you do with technology?”
We can all sit here and say we want to get as many calls absolutely correct as possible but there’s a line there, especially when you’re looking at high-sticking plays and whether it’s “friendly fire” or not. Do you potentially want to be reviewing an extra 700 penalties? Which is how many high-sticking calls there currently are. Does that review have to come in the form of a coach’s challenge, where the coach is making that call? Or does the league do it? They’re even talking about putting a watch on the referee so they can buzz him. The point being is I don’t think they’ve landed on any one area that this is going to go to I think we’ll be talking about this in future meetings when we get together.
Dreger: I agree. But there’s a public relations twist to this as well, right? Because we’re so good at what we do. Technology is enhanced over time and the NHL is tired of getting hit over the head with missed calls so that’s why when you look at the puck over glass or a phantom high stick, or friendly fire in the high stick category, that’s why they’re having this discussion here.
You have to fast forward and look at the bigger picture. Can you envision a coach in a playoff environment, say overtime, calling a coach’s challenge and potentially going into a 5-on-3 situation if they get that challenge wrong? The general managers would prefer the NHL keep that in-house and that decision, whether to apply video review or not, is handled by the situation room. But then you’ve got the NHL saying “All right, we’ve got it wrong once, we don’t want to get it wrong twice.” So there are a lot of layers to this.
Are referees going to be held accountable?
Wes McCauleyJohnston: They are and director of officiating Stephen Walkom addressed the GMs on Tuesday. One of the things he did in his presentation is show a video of a day in the life of veteran official Wes McCauley. That detailed through a game the kind of discussion that are had between periods among the officials, how the officiating director on site communicates with the referee and points out, maybe, “Hey you missed a call here or you could have done this there.” [It even showed] how McCauley himself breaks the game down the next day and looks at his own performance.
This is a stressful time of year between the referees and the GMs on how those calls go down but a little accountability lesson was a part of the presentation on this day.
Gino Reda: Looking ahead to Day 3 of the general managers’ meetings, there’s going to be some news. We expect to find out the date of the Draft Lottery. With Connor Bedard waiting in the wings, expect some pomp and circumstance.
And so, now it comes down to this: the regular-season finale against the Canadiens at Bell Centre in Montreal on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; RDS, TSN2, BSDET).
The Red Wings and Washington Capitals are tied for the second wild card into the playoffs from the Eastern Conference with 89 points, but the Capitals own the tiebreaker (31-27 in regulation wins). The Pittsburgh Penguins have 88 points and 32 regulation wins. The Philadelphia Flyers have 87 points and 30 regulation wins.
Washington and Philadelphia play each other Tuesday in the regular-season finale for each team. The Penguins play the New York Islanders on Wednesday in their regular-season finale.
Bottom line: Detroit needs a point, ideally two points, and some help.
“Going into the season, no one had us in the playoffs,” coach Derek Lalonde said. “Most [people] had us picked seventh in the [Atlantic Division]. If you would have told us, ‘You have one game, Game 82 on the road, to improve 11 points over your previous season, to have a chance to make the playoffs,’ every single one of us would have signed up for it. It’s here now.”
That’s true. Going into the season, no one picked the Red Wings to make the playoffs. They had 80 points last season, seventh in the division.
But then they signed forward Patrick Kane as an unrestricted free agent Nov. 28. He looked better than anyone expected after hip surgery.
Detroit went on a 16-4-2 run from Jan. 2-Feb. 27, building an eight-point cushion in the playoff race and raising expectations.
After the Red Wings lost seven straight games in regulation from Feb. 29-March 14, they suddenly found themselves out of the playoff picture. They’ve been in a tight, multi-team competition ever since, sometimes above the cut line, sometimes below it, depending on the day.
They’ve kept fighting.
At Pittsburgh on Thursday, they were down 1-0 and 2-1 in the first period; 3-2 and 4-2 in the second; and 5-3 in the third. But Raymond completed a hat trick to tie it, and they ended up with a point in a 6-5 overtime loss.
At the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday, they took a penalty late in regulation with the game tied 4-4, knowing if they didn’t get a point they’d be eliminated. They killed the penalty, and they got two points when captain Dylan Larkin scored in OT to give them a 5-4 win.
Against the Canadiens on Monday, they were down 2-0 in the first period and 4-1 in the second. They were down 4-2 entering the third. But they got their 12th third-period comeback win of the season, second in the NHL behind the New York Rangers (14).
“I give the guys a ton of credit to hang in there and then to find a way,” Lalonde said. “We’ve done it all year.”
Sports
RECAP: Red Wings' 5-4 comeback OT victory against Canadiens the result of belief, resiliency | Detroit Red Wings – NHL.com
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Lalonde on Monday’s victory
“I can’t speak enough on the guys. I know this is the 13th game in which we were trailing in the third and we got two full points. Not took points, not lost in overtime. We actually won the game. We actually talked about it after the second (period), you have these little things throughout the year, when it happens, we’ll tap back into that.”
Lalonde on the Canadiens taking an early lead
“They scored on both of their chances in the second (period). Again, it’s frustrating. Not a great game, not a clean game. Credit to them, but we’re going to get out of that period two chances against and they both go in. Five chances over two periods, four go in. We just gave them too much easy offense around the scoring area. Not a lot, but just enough.”
Raymond on his game-winner
“Just saw Larks up ice, thought he was going for a breakaway first but he was probably pretty tired. Then just tried to jump up. I was pretty tired too and then just tried to get off a shot. Happy it went in.”
Raymond on being part of a postseason chase
“It’s been a lot of emotions up and down, but it’s been fun. I think all of us have enjoyed it. I think we’ve stuck with it and have been able to pull through with some really big points here down the stretch. I think if you look at our locker room, we have so many competitive guys who enjoy these types of games. Obviously would have liked it to be a little more steady, but it is what it is and we’ll take it from there. It shows a lot about our team, the way we’re able to come back in these games and come through in the end.”
Raymond on the crowd at Little Caesars Arena on Monday night
“This building has been amazing ever since I’ve been here. Tonight it helped us for sure, when you get momentum like that and the crowd feeds into it you get energy from that. Always feels really good whenever we’re able to give back to them. Just happy we were able to get a win for all the guys and girls here.”
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