Chris Stewart of the Minnesota Wild thought he had a goal Sunday night. Heck, his teammates thought he had a goal, too. They celebrated like a goal was scored but San Jose Sharks goaltender Martin Jones made the save of the year (in the “uniform only” category).
The NHL is always looking for ways to improve scoring, so don’t be surprised if the next rule change involves making goaltenders wear tighter jerseys, because that’s probably a goal if not for the slight bagginess of Jones’ sweater. It’s not like Jones is wearing giant shoulder pads and got away with something here but let’s get more pucks in the net.
Another interesting aspect of this: Jones is one of the few NHL goaltenders that doesn’t wear the plastic neck guard that hangs under the mask to protect the throat area. If that Stewart puck is a few more inches to the right, Jones might have found himself down on the ice and bleeding profusely like he was just shot by John Wick.
Say this for Jones — he really stuck his neck out for the team. The Wild were probably hot … under the collar that this wasn’t ruled a goal. But with a frozen puck under his collar, Jones was probably cool … under the collar … or something.
