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I was not inclined initially to write about the play in Game One of the Eastern Conference Finals in which Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price suffered a series-ending knee injury when New York Rangers forward Chris Kreider slid into him. The play is still being discussed days later, however, so I will focus on the bigger picture of the controversy.

First of all, what I saw on the play in question was a player trying to score a goal. Kreider skated in with a lot of speed, got knocked slightly off balance by the heel of the defenseman's stick blade to the back of his skate (an age-old "trick" that goes back to the days of Doug Harvey) and had no chance to avoid the resulting collision with the goaltender.

No scandal here, folks. It wasn't a reckless, calculated or vicious play. The result was unfortunate but that's hockey.

If the nets were locked into the ice as they were in yesterday, players wouldn't be crashing the nets fearlessly as they do now. Gruesome injuries, especially one suffered by Mark Howe, led to the introduction of the safer nets used today. Overall, that was a good change for the game but it did create more collisions.

As for Kreider's "history of running goalies", every situation is unique and I see nothing at all that suggests there is some serial issue of the player recklessly injuring opposing goalies. The Craig Anderson injury was a play in which Kreider got pushed by Ottawa defender Mark Methot from too close of a proximity for Kreider to stop and, again, there was an unfortunate result with the goaltender getting injured.

The Marc-Andre Fleury incident was your basic glancing contact around the net for a two-minute penalty. The severity of the contact was largely embellished by Fleury and that embellishment, quite honestly, is the most notable thing about that play.

Now for the bigger picture, as I see it.

The crease is too big and comes too far out. This players crowd the net and the goalies get bumped. The pads are too big. The catching glove is more like a butterfly net or deflector nowadays. Coaches strongly encourage shot blocking whenever possible. Meanwhile, too many players use sticks that are too big.

Goalies are getting bigger and bigger and there is very little target at which to shoot. Meanwhile, when you take a guy built like Marty Biron (Marty is a great guy, but I must say he looks like Ichabod Crane in street clothes) and then dress him in goalie gear, he suddenly looks like a 240-pound linebacker.

The result is that coaches hammer home the need for their players to crash the net -- or to deflect anything and everything they can reach -- to invent scoring chances and increase the chance of scoring. The side effect is more collisions, more injuries and an NHL Rulebook that struggles to deal with it all.

Meanwhile, despite the Michelin Man gear, goalie injuries are still very prevalent. It's a joke but not a funny one.

The International Ice Hockey Federation is considering making goaltender interference penalties an automatic double minor. My view is that we have penalties now that don't solve the problem. Adding penalties for hockey plays is not a solution. It's a BandAid of a public relations move to make it appear like something is being done.

Listen, I don't have a magical solution to offer here. We need a sit down with real forward- thinking hockey people and find ways to make our game safer while also giving players a fairer chance to score goals. We've taken out the red line. Forecheckers can't be held up the way they used to. Pucks directed (not kicked) off skates count as goals. Nevertheless, teams struggle to score.

Bottom lineL I have a hard time blaming Chris Kreider for Carey Price's injury. Kreider did nothing wrong. Let's talk instead about things that are ACTUALLY wrong with the direction our sport has taken.

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Paul Stewart holds the distinction of being the first U.S.-born citizen to make it to the NHL as both a player and referee. On March 15, 2003, he became the first American-born referee to officiate in 1,000 NHL games.

Today, Stewart is an officiating and league discipline consultant for the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) and serves as director of hockey officiating for the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC).

The longtime referee heads Officiating by Stewart, a consulting, training and evaluation service for officials. Stewart also maintains a busy schedule as a public speaker, fund raiser and master-of-ceremonies for a host of private, corporate and public events. As a non-hockey venture, he is the owner of Lest We Forget.

In addition to his blogs for HockeyBuzz every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, Stewart writes a column every Wednesday for the Huffington Post.