TAMPA, Fla., — Sidney Crosby is a league man, through and through.
The Penguins star and the best player of his generation defended the NHL and the flawed evolution of the goaltender interference penalty that has drawn such ire from players and teams over the past few weeks. That especially included disallowed goals from the two players next in line to takes Crosby’s throne in Auston Matthews and Connor McDavid.
“There’s been some situations where it’s probably been magnified. It happened in Toronto, and it happened in Edmonton, so you tend to look at it a little more,” Crosby said Saturday during All-Star media day, just before the skill competition took place at Amalie Arena.
“As a player, you have a pretty good idea. If you affect the goalie’s ability to make a save, ultimately it’s not going to be a goal,” Crosby said. “I think it’s been pretty consistent. It’s tough in the moment to understand that. I watch a lot of hockey, and I like to think, as a player, I’m pretty aware when it’s going to be called back, or what’s a good goal and what’s not.”
It has become such a point of contention that it was brought up at the Board of Governors meeting Saturday, and will be discussed further to make sure the rule is clarified before teams resume play Tuesday. Asked if he didn’t think there were some questionable calls recently, Crosby stuck to his stance.
“There’s a couple times, but it’s always going to be like that,” he said. “But I don’t think it’s at the point where you see one and you have no idea if it’s going to be interference or not.”
It was expected the league was going to have an official application for expansion from Seattle by this time, but apparently the ownership group led by billionaire David Bonderman is waiting until maybe early next week to submit.
The NHL officially announced the expansion process open in early December, and has been awaiting the application from Seattle, who already has a KeyArena set to undergo a $600 million renovation. With the expansion fee rising from the $500 million Las Vegas paid to get in to $650 million, the league reportedly promised the same rules for the expansion draft — which has led the Golden Knights to being the second-best team in the league more than halfway through.
The Board of Governors was also told of the overseas games planned for next season, starting with the regular-season opener between the Devils and Oilers in Sweden. Before that, the Devils will play an exhibition game in Switzerland — home of their No. 1 pick Nico Hischier — and the Oilers will play one in Germany — home of their young star, Leon Draisaitl.
In November, the Jets and Panthers will play in Finland.
It’s also believed the Flames and Bruins will play two games in China, but that was yet to be ratified by the Players’ Association. With the league’s decision not to participate in next month’s Olympics in South Korea — and not guarantee anything about 2022 in Beijing — it’s hard to convince players it’s a good idea to go to China for league games.