(Photo Credit: SinBin.vegas Photographer Brandon Andreasen)

It’s over, it’s done with, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it now. But the fact of the matter is that #NotAMajor will forever be a part of the Vegas Golden Knights’ story, and with that means any time anyone of significance talks about, it’s news.

Recently, Cody Eakin sat down with Gary Lawless as part of the SLGND Podcast’s offseason “Interview Series.” The interview as a whole is fascinating, but the portion about the penalty in Game 7 was particularly interesting. Eakin explained exactly what he was thinking as the entire play went down.

Draws are the game within the game. When you can start with the puck it’s easier to have the puck and play with it than to chase it. So when you lose a draw you want to make sure you aren’t losing it easily and cleanly and I kind of lost it cleanly. So I was going to make sure and give him a shove and let him know the next one isn’t going to be as easy to win. -Eakin

You can see exactly what he’s thinking as he described it as you watch the play. The draw is lost clean, so he goes out of his way to give Joe Pavelski a shove.

Over the course of the past few months, the play has kind of morphed in the mids of fans from “that’s not a major,” to “that’s not a penalty” to “he did nothing wrong.” Well, it’s hard to hear what Eakin said, see the play, and not believe he did something wrong.

I would consider it a shove, a cross-check has more intent to injure, you’re looking to leave a bruise, to hurt someone kind of. That’s why you get a penalty for it. I would call it a shove and after that, it was just unfortunate. -Eakin

Clearly, Eakin’s intent was not to cause the result Pavelski endured, however, he did mean to hurt him.

It’s a moment of truth from Eakin that shows just how tense playoff games really are. Eakin went on to explain how he was focused on getting out to the point as both Brent Burns and Erik Karlsson were on the ice.

Personally, I still can’t blame Eakin for the outcome of Game 7, I’ll still point at the horrendous refereeing and the abysmal penalty killing. However, I do feel like I have a clearer picture of what happened that fateful night.