NHL reason behind Vasily Podkolzin ejection in Game 2 of Oilers playoffs
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In the last few minutes of last night's game between the Oilers and Kings, Vasily Podkolzin was ejected for seemingly targeting a specific player in the late stages.
The NHL likes to keep the scrums and penalties in garbage time to a minimum, and with Podkolzin taking an obvious penalty in the final minutes down 6-2, he was assessed an ejection.
NHL reasoning behind ejection for Oilers Vasily Podkolzin in Game 2 of playoffs
In the final 10 minutes of the game, Podkolzin was ejected for just lightly tapping Quinton Byfield.
The refs were trying to control the temperature of the game, but there may have been more to their decision.
Byfield has been stirring up conflict all throughout the first two games of the season, becoming a serious pest while also breaking out offensively and being an impact player in this series.
On a few occasions, Byfield has taken runs at Connor McDavid specifically. He's already got him a few times in this series, and also extending to the regular season.
More than a few Oilers seemed to take the garbage time in the blowout game to try to go after Byfield, but the referees shut it down every time.
Props to Podkolzin for remembering the event and going after Byfield, but nothing really came from it. Perhaps it comes up again later on in this playoff series.
For now, the Kings are winning the physical intimidation battle this series. The Oilers can't even worry about it for now - they just need to get on the board with 2 wins in Edmonton.
| POLL | ||
AVRIL 24 | 578 ANSWERS NHL reason behind Vasily Podkolzin ejection in Game 2 of Oilers playoffs Do you think the Oilers were going after Byfield for targeting McDavid? | ||
| Yes | 415 | 71.8 % |
| No | 163 | 28.2 % |
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