Today In NHL History - Pettersson Injures Calvert

On November 16th in 2019, Colorado Avalanche winger Matt Calvert took an Elias Pettersson wrist shot to the head. Clearly bloodied and injured by the puck, Pettersson paused and alerted the referees in an effort to stop play.

The officials ignored Pettersson's plea and twelve long seconds later Alex Edler scored, pulling the Vancouver Canucks within one goal with less than three minutes to play in the third period.
Players across the league were outraged that refs didn't stop play to attend to a player with a head injury. The problem lies with the NHL Rulebook, specifically Rule 8.1 Injured Player, which reads in relevant part:

When a player is injured so that he cannot continue play or go to his bench, the play shall not be stopped until the injured player’s team has secured control of the puck. If the player’s team is in control of the puck at the time of injury, play shall be stopped immediately unless his team is in a scoring position. In the case where it is obvious that a player has sustained a serious injury, the Referee and/or Linesman may stop the play immediately.

Brock Boeser added the equalizer with one minute remaining to force overtime. But, the Canucks comeback fell short as Nathan MacKinnon scored 27 seconds into the extra frame giving Colorado a 5-4 win.

That's today in NHL history.