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Things you never thought you'd hear a referee say: "The Chicago person deliberately head-butted the puck into the net - no goal." 

First of all, the Chicago "person?"

And then, what about the fact a soccer-style, head-butt goal is illegal?

NBC's Brian Engblom won't feel good about the fact he declared Andrew Shaw's creative move perfectly okay, according to the rule book, just seconds before the goal was officially disallowed, but he can only be criticized for being so definite.

The proper reaction was to scratch his head, say nothing and wait for a ruling.

Andrew Shaw

In retrospect, it should have been obvious that if Shaw couldn't use any other part of his body to deliberately propel the puck into the net - i.e. hand, arm, foot - he wasn't going to get away with using his head.

But because no player in my hockey-watching memory ever had the opportunity, the thought or the ability to do what Shaw did, it wasn't clear if Shaw had ended the game in double overtime or not.

Ah, but for those in the NHL war room, it took no time at all. They can occasionally be criticized for taking too long to make a decision. In this case, no deliberation was necessary - just knowledge of the rules. 'Thumbs up' to the league for passing that test without delay. 'Heads up' to the rest of us if it ever happens again.

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Thumbs up to Todd McLellan for saying the right things, and more importantly for not saying the wrong things, at the news conference that introduced him as the coach of the Edmonton Oilers.

It goes without saying that the Oilers have been all talk and not nearly enough wins for far too long. There has been excitement about nothing more than apparent potential. The team of the future hasn't been able to get out of the present, or the cellar, but no one has ever doubted that success was inevitable.

Todd McLellan

McLellan could have continued the hype by listing the names of the number-one draft picks and asking, "Who wouldn't want to jump on the back of this juggernaut?"

Instead, in the first 20 minutes that I viewed, at least, he didn't even mention the name of the latest franchise saviour, Connor McDavid, and that was wise.

So was his warning that there would be some painful days ahead. Sure, they would hopefully be mixed with a greater number of enjoyable ones, but McLellan wasn't promising success as much as he was laying out his plan for achieving it and pointing out that it won't come automatically. 

The Oilers need to stop saying it and just do it, and in appearing to understand that, Todd McLellan showed himself to be the right coach for Edmonton.