Changes possible
NHL wants situation room to have final say on goalie interference
Canada’s Jennifer Jones was given a rather favourable schedule at the start of the world women’s curling championship and she’s taken full advantage.
The Winnipeg skip picked up two more wins Tuesday at the North Bay Memorial Gardens. She beat Denmark’s Angelina Jensen 10-5 in the morning before topping Scotland’s Hannah Fleming 8-6 in the evening.
Jones has opened the competition with six straight victories.
Canada’s first three wins during the weekend went smoothly and China provided a mild test Monday.
On Tuesday, Jensen’s team was game against the host side in the early going before fading in the eighth end, giving up four points for the loss.
“We started a little bit slow so we’ll try to fix that in the next game,” Jones said. “But we’re ending really strong, which if you’re going to pick a way to do it, that’s the way to go.”
The Canada skip put up three points during the first two ends against Scotland, but Fleming scored a deuce in the third and nailed a delicate doubletapback for three in the fifth to take the lead.
Scotland stole a single in the sixth when Jones was wide with a raise attempt. But Jones rebounded with a double takeout in the seventh to score three for a lead she wouldn’t relinquish.
The schedule will get a lot tougher for Canada starting today.
First up is an afternoon game against Olympic silver medallist Canada skip Jennifer Jones watches her shot being swept by second Jill Officer, left, and lead Dawn McEwen as they face Scotland Tuesday night at the World Women’s Curling Championship in North Bay, Ont.
EunJung Kim of South Korea. It will be followed by a showcase matchup against Pyeongchang champion Anna Hasselborg of Sweden.
Hasselborg, meanwhile, defeated Anna Kubeskova of the Czech Republic 8-6 in the afternoon and edged Switzerland’s Binia Feltscher 5-4 in the late
game to improve to 7-0. South Korea moved to 5-1 with a 12-3 rout of China’s Yilun Jiang in the minimum six ends.
NHL general managers came to Florida looking for clarity and consistency on goalie interference calls.
With the playoffs just around the corner, they might wind up getting both.
The league announced Tuesday GMs want the final decision on video reviews of goalie interference to rest with the hockey operations department in Toronto instead of referees on the ice.
“We had to first define the standard of review and get more clarity on that,” Vegas Golden Knights GM George McPhee said. “We have that now, and then to have that decision made in Toronto, I think affords more consistency.”
The ball now rests in the NHL Players’ Association’s court, and then ultimately with the board of governors, which requires unanimous support from all 31 teams to approve an in-season change of this sort.
On-ice officials, using a tablet and headset, currently make the final video review determination in conjunction with hockey operations when a coach challenges for goalie interference.
But a couple of controversial decisions made in the heat of the moment involving high-profile teams and players forced the league to take a second look at the process.
The NHL laid out the numbers to GMs and reporters this week, stating through 1,114 games in 2017-18, there were 170 combined challenges from coaches and the situation room for goalie interference. Of those instances, referees stayed with the call on the ice 119 times and overturned the initial ruling on 51 occasions. The league said it only disagreed with a fraction of the calls made by its officials.