Buffalo Sabres Links: Goals, Goaltenders

Good morning, Buffalo Sabres fans. The NHL playoffs are well underway, with both the Eastern Conference Final and Western Conference Final in their prime.

There have been several interesting moments in this year’s playoffs so far, including the triple-overtime victory a few nights ago in the series between the Anaheim Ducks and Chicago Blackhawks. It was the longest game in Blackhawks history, reaching 116 minutes of play.

That’s right — nearly two full games, played in one night. I don’t even want to think about how tired the players must have been at the end of that.

One of the interesting moments that occurred in that game was a disallowed goal scored by Blackhawks forward Andrew Shaw. Had it been allowed, it would have been the overtime-winning goal, but alas — you can’t put pucks into the net off your head.

Shaw deliberately headed the puck into the net using yes, his head, almost soccer-style. After deliberation, the goal was disallowed and overtime continued until that fateful moment at the 116-minute mark.

The interesting thing about this, however, doesn’t lie in the goal, but in the reaction to it afterwards. Shaw celebrated as though he had scored a perfectly legal goal, and it turns out he’s not the only NHLer who didn’t know that sort of goal was illegal.

As cited in the CBS Sports article, guys like Joffrey Lupul, Michael Grabner, even Colby Armstrong and Matthew Barnaby, all took to Twitter to proclaim their lack of awareness of such a rule. Even several goaltenders agreed that it should have counted, but the league thought differently.

More from Sabres News

The question now begs: is this a rule the NHL should consider looking at? And what other rules or illegalities exist that players aren’t even aware of?

For a fun little read this morning, try this test from USA Today about the solitude of NHL goaltenders. Don’t worry, it’s fill-in-the-blank. [USA Today]

For hockey fans who are into the video game scene, NHL 16 from EA Sports will have a nifty new feature: playoff beards.

As reported by The Star, the new feature will be available for Xbox One and Playstation.

Speaking purely from a graphic/video game design standpoint, this is pretty neat. While it may not really improve the quality of the game, it’s just a neat little addition that will make it even more fun.

Finally, in other news from around the NHL, the St. Louis Blues have named Martin Brodeur their assistant general manager. [NHL.com]

Brodeur, who retired in January after seven games with the Blues, then joined the team as a senior advisor to GM Doug Armstrong. His new contract is for three years.

Next: Draft Profile: Jeremy Roy

More from Sabre Noise