Inside the NHL's player safety room on the league's busiest night
The department tracked 16 games, concussion spotters, and potential discipline, resulting in one fine.
Explainer
The NHL's Player Safety department monitored all 32 teams in action on a busy Tuesday night, tracking head injuries and potential supplemental discipline.
"For the most part, when people come in, they do leave with knowing at least one thing: We definitely saw what you think that we should see," said Damian Echevarrieta, the NHL's senior vice-president of player safety.
He said visitors might not agree with decisions, but they leave knowing the department notices every incident.
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The Associated Press observed the operation during ESPN's "Frozen Frenzy," which featured 16 games.
What does the player safety room monitor?
The control room at league headquarters in Manhattan is the first line of defence for head injuries.
Eight game-watchers alert concussion spotters seated at the front of the room to any possible contact to the head.
Spotters then have a direct line to reach team medical staffs at games.
The room also begins the process for determining supplemental discipline like suspensions and fines.
Another task is ensuring players wear helmets in warmups and that first-year players wear mandatory neck guards.
Anyone doing a rookie lap, like Anaheim's Roger McQueen on Tuesday night, gets a grace period.
When McQueen was still helmetless several minutes later, Player Safety was ready to call the arena.
McQueen had his helmet on two minutes later.
What incidents did they track on Tuesday?
The first call came at 6:33 p.m. to look at New Jersey's Jack Hughes high-sticking Detroit's Keegan Kolesar.
It was quickly cleared as a spotter concern, but Echevarrieta wanted the video clipped for later.
Just after 7 p.m., spotters were made aware of Florida's Lars Eller taking a puck to the face in the first period at Columbus and leaving the ice to get stitched up.
They also kept an eye on Montreal's Noah Dobson for any visible signs of a concussion.
Game-watchers have access to Hawk-Eye camera angles from each end of the ice, a full-rink view from high above and the ability to isolate on a single player.
At 7:52 p.m., Panthers defenceman Uvis Balinskis was down on the ice after Blue Jackets forward Mathieu Olivier speared him in the groin.
Echevarrieta and his team clocked it before officials reviewed the video and ejected Olivier with a game misconduct for slashing.
Seattle goaltender Philipp Grubauer shoving Philadelphia's Trevor Zegras also raised attention around the room not long after.
That was more to have video evidence of a goalie roughing penalty for future reference.
How does a play become a fine or suspension?
Any time there is potential for further punishment, a report catalogs what happened, if there was a penalty called, the players involved, any disciplinary history, the aggressor's next game and video clips.
That report is sent to the entire department.
When George Parros, a retired enforcer who took over player safety decisions in 2017, deems something worthy of a possible review, he emails Echevarrieta and the rest of the room for thoughts to be shared just with him.
Parros asked about the Olivier incident by 8:17 p.m., less than a half-hour after the play unfolded.
On Wednesday, Olivier was fined $5,000 US, the maximum allowed under the collective bargaining agreement.
A suspension was determined not to be warranted in part because he had no disciplinary history.
How did the system handle such a chaotic night?
Echevarrieta said repetition over the years has helped, to where now even the most chaotic nights like Tuesday run smoothly.
Interspersed in the job responsibilities is plenty of hockey talk, including chatter about Matthew Tkachuk assisting on brother Brady's natural hat trick.
At multiple points, 10 games were going on at the same time, with Echevarrieta switching the sound to the most important broadcast at the moment.
He oversaw action that included 136 penalties, 110 goals and five fights, including the second of the young season for Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon.
Overheard was the amazed sentiment, "Nate fought again?"
"It was already a time-tested system that we put into place, and it's worked really well," Echevarrieta said.
The department was established in 2011, and Echevarrieta has been with the NHL since 1999, working in hockey operations in Toronto under Colin Campbell.
He said a decade and a half ago came the opportunity to copy many of the same procedures used for goal reviews to use in Player Safety.
He invites anyone working in hockey to visit the room, a five-minute walk from where the Rangers play their home games at Madison Square Garden.
"MSG's right down the street," Echevarrieta said. "If you're in town, especially if you have a day off in between an Islanders and a Rangers game, the door's always open."
With files from The Globe and Mail, CBC News and Yahoo Sports