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Scott Nichol speaks with referee Chris Lee

For some reason I find the Scott Nichol situation intensely fascinating. Here’s a guy who came within inches of a potentially serious injury as the result of a severely careless play by Maxim Lapierre, and not only does he harbor no ill feelings towards Lapierre but he says he’s fine with the ref who didn’t call a penalty.

Last night, in his first game back since hurting his shoulder, Nichol played with referee Chris Lee officiating the game. Unlike the Alex Burrows-Stephane Auger incident, Nichol maintained that he never intended to say anything to Lee about the hit.

During the game, it was tough to miss the lengthy conversation he had with Lee after Nichol was assessed a questionable high-sticking penalty. What did he say?

Nichol was objecting to the high-sticking call, saying Martin Erat actually used his own stick to lift Nichol’s and that’s when Nichol’s stick struct Erat. At one point, Nichol said, he mentioned that he didn’t even have full strength in his arm -- at which point Lee gave him a “sorry about that” with regards to the call he missed March 4 against Montreal.

Here’s Nichol reiterating his stance on Lapierre’s hit:

“Like I said before,” Nichol said, “it’s a fast game and a lot of things happen in a split second. There are no hard feelings for sure.”

Lapierre received a four-game suspension for the hit, and while it was careless it certainly didn’t appear to be malicious. It’s refreshing to see a player ale to just move on.