New goalies in Colorado:

I cannot remember a time when a team totally changed their goalies and then... wait... New Jersey did that last year. But they did it too late to help, and Colorado is much quicker on the trigger finger.

The NHL Board of Governors is meeting in Florida, and the first day is about the issue of Larry Brooks writing about the Rangers interest in Brady Tkachuk right before the Trouba trade.

Conclusion: No one can prove this is tampering of any hardness and the Rangers are saying they discussed Tkachuk with no one. I don't actually think what Brooks wrote had anything to do with Trouba, and I believe the Rangers would be extremely interested in Tkachuk. That doesn't seem to be anything like tampering. The Sens are kinda complainy, aren't they?

I don't care about Tortorella's love of the spotlight, but the answer to this question seems complex. First, what do you call diving, and what is your tolerance level for what more properly is called embellishment.

People get upset when a player gets called for embellishment when there is also a penalty on the other player. I find this upset bizarre. If I embroider some random pillowcase (that's what embellishing means), it's still a pillow case. My artistic interpretation doesn't change the fundamental nature of the thing. If someone artistically falls down when they are hooked (Michael Bunting has entered the chat) that's still hooking. And embellishing.

MJ's point on the video above is that there isn't a big problem with embellishing, and it's also very hard to tell if a player just fell. He says the NHL is just very hard to officiate. Which I'm sure will cue up some outrage and vitriol, but it is. It's fast, weird shit happens, and it's played on ice. Also, people make mistakes, and getting out the rage machine or the persecution complex over every mistake is just an unreasonable standard to hold refs to.

My take is this: the problem isn't big, and his idea about reviewing the game after the fact to find actual fakers is a good one, but diving happens. And it happens a lot more than it used to, and that might be because the number of power play opportunities has declined from the post full lockout high of 5.85 to a steady 3 per team per game for the last decade. However that comes about – some combination of the referees instructed to not call everything and to even it up with players having a lot less time to commit infractions in the fast-paced, net-front game – it means the value of a power play has risen. Add in that power plays score more often, and the value goes up some more. Valuable things get stolen.

You want less diving? Call more penalties. Oh, look, you got more scoring too, the games are a titch less random in outcome and the fans are happier.

And that is your rant for a Tuesday. Preview will be out later. Happy Tuesday!

From The Branches