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Scott Nichol returns; check out who the ref will be

Before the insanity surrounding the Matt Cooke hit began, the focus had been on Maxim Lapierre’s hit on Scott Nichol. Lapierre was suspending four games for the late hit, but a lot of the focus was on how there wasn’t a penalty called on the original play despite referee Chris Lee being about 3 feet away and looking right at them.

Tonight, Scott Nichol returns after missing the past week with a shoulder injury, and in his first game back Chris Lee will be officiating the game.

Don’t expect any hard feelings from Nichol towards Lee however.

“Probably not,” Nichol said, laughing, when someone brought that up after the morning skate. “Everybody makes mistakes. It was funny, it was a quick play and even guys on our team didn’t see it. I’m just glad I’m back. One game was enough.”

It’s an odd thing to have a player hurt in such a play have such a positive outlook, but Nichol is harbors no bad feelings at all it seems. He acknowledges it was a careless play, but he also feels it was just the nature of what happens every now and then in the NHL.

It’s refreshing to see a player not seeking vindication, but I’d like Nichol to at least go up to Chris Lee ask just what the heck he saw that led him to not call a penalty.