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Host, TSN The Reporters with Dave Hodge

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The Connor McDavid injury is very unfortunate, but... "thumbs up", or in this case, "chins up" to Edmonton fans. Here's a list of reasons that will hope to identify the bright side.

1) The Oilers won the game in which McDavid was hurt, and came from behind to do it, beating Philadelphia 4-2.

2) The win put them only two points away from a playoff spot.

3) Taylor Hall is tied for third place on the NHL scoring list.

4) Glen Sather will be honoured next month. It's always great to relive the 1980s.

5) Rogers Place (not to be confused with Rogers Centre or Rogers Arena or Rogers Hornsby) is due to open its doors in time for the 2016-17 season.

6) Calgary lost again (6-3 to Colorado).

7) The Eskimos might win the Grey Cup.

8) McDavid will be back.

And for those fans everywhere else who identified McDavid as the biggest, and maybe even the only reason to watch an NHL game, there are others. But yes, McDavid will be missed, league-wide and not just in Edmonton.

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"Thumbs up" to the coach's challenge. But it needs work. So I offer two revisions that are necessary and would, I suggest, make it much more acceptable.

Re goaltender interference - a coach is able to direct the officials to review a goal for the purpose of determining if the goalie was the victim of "interference".

Goals have been wiped out because the goalie was prevented, even in a small way, from making his normal attempt to stop the puck. Perhaps he was touched by an offending player, or did not have the full goal-crease area in which to move.

Never mind that he mightn't, or probably wouldn't have made a save, a decision can be made that a goal shouldn't count regardless.

Long forgotten is the threshold of "interference". For simplicity and fairness and common sense, the NHL should stipulate that a goal must stand unless the referees are prepared to send the offending attacker to the box with a two-minute penalty for goaltender interference.

The "no goal, no actual foul" interpretation needs to vanish.

Re unsuccessful coach challenges - there needs to be a penalty.

There might be stick measurements every game if coaches could call for them regularly. They don't, because they'll play a man short if they're wrong. And it has come to be considered bush league to stoop to such a method to gain an advantage, and bad form to pause a game that way.

Well, there are some referee challenges by coaches that appear to be similarly ill-advised. Coaches are sufficiently annoyed when they're on the wrong side of a call involving goalie interference that their frustration leads them to challenge later because they can. Big deal, they lose their timeout if they're wrong. Bigger deal if they are assessed a bench minor. In that event, a challenge would never be used frivolously, or on a borderline call early in the game. It would be used if a coach was confident he had a strong case, or if a questionable play that seemed likely to decide the game went against him.

The coach's challenge is meant to correct obvious and damaging errors by officials. It shouldn't be allowed to take over a game for any other reason.