Bednar reacts after NHL rescinds MacKinnon major penalty

Nathan MacKinnon’s game misconduct and major penalty from Tuesday night were rescinded by the NHL, a reversal that resets a disciplinary counter with real stakes for the Colorado Avalanche star. The decision follows a reviewed collision with Edmonton Oilers goaltender Connor Ingram that was originally upheld during Colorado’s 4-3 loss, then removed days later after the play drew sharp pushback from Jared Bednar.

MacKinnon and Ingram collision

The play in question happened late in the second period at Ball Arena, when MacKinnon drove toward the crease while attempting to receive a pass. One account described it as MacKinnon trying to take a pass on a second-period power play; another specified a cross-ice pass from Brock Nelson near the right post. In both versions, Edmonton defenseman Darnell Nurse met MacKinnon at the edge of the crease and made contact, and MacKinnon then crashed into Ingram in the crease.

Officials assessed MacKinnon a major penalty for interference and a game misconduct after a lengthy review, and the call was confirmed on the ice. The Avalanche then had to kill more than four minutes of short-handed time. Ingram left the game because of the collision, though he has since returned to action.

The pattern suggests the ruling hinged less on intent than outcome: the game misconduct was tied to the injury, and that injury escalated what Bednar argued was incidental contact caused by Nurse’s positioning and hit.

Bednar’s criticism of Nurse

After the game, Bednar framed the incident as a misread of responsibility around the crease, arguing MacKinnon could not avoid contact with the goaltender once Nurse made contact. “There’s no chance he hits the goalie if Nurse doesn’t run into him, ” Bednar said, adding that the severity of the crash or whether Ingram was injured should not have turned it into a penalty. He also argued the officials effectively treated the goaltender’s injury as the basis for the five-minute call.

MacKinnon echoed that logic when describing the aftermath. He said he assumed the five-minute call was tied to the desire to review the play and believed he would return to the ice for a power play. He also pointed to visual evidence of losing control after contact, saying there was a picture of him with his skates going above the crease, underscoring that he “got hit” and had “nothing I could do. ”

The figures point to why emotions ran hot in the moment: Colorado killed the major, tied the game in the third period, yet still lost 4-3 after Connor McDavid scored with 10: 57 remaining, leaving little room to separate the penalty from the game’s turning points.

Bednar and rule 23. 6 stakes

While rescinding the penalty does not change the result of Tuesday night’s 4-3 loss, it changes MacKinnon’s status going forward under NHL rule 23. 6. The rule states that any player who incurs two game misconduct penalties in the “Physical Infractions Category” before playing 41 consecutive regular-season games without such a penalty “shall be suspended automatically for the next league game of his team, ” with each subsequent game misconduct increasing the automatic suspension by one game.

That mattered immediately because, as described in the context, if the major penalty had held up, MacKinnon would have faced a one-game suspension if he received another game misconduct for a physical infraction within his next 41 regular-season games. With the NHL rescinding the misconduct, MacKinnon’s counter is now reset to zero for the purposes of rule 23. 6. In practical terms, the reversal removes a near-term disciplinary trigger that could have converted a future borderline call into an automatic suspension.

MacKinnon said general manager Chris MacFarland requested the league review the play and that the league “took it away, ” adding, “Mistakes happen. ” The context also notes Mikko Rantanen as the most recent player suspended under the same policy after two game misconducts in a three-game span earlier this season, a recent example inside the organization of how quickly the rule can bite once the count starts.

For now, the open question is procedural rather than medical: the NHL has removed the major penalty and game misconduct, but the context does not specify any further disciplinary review beyond that rescission, leaving the league’s internal standard for overturning such on-ice confirmations undefined in this case.