Golden Knights owner Foley pushing to make major penalty calls reviewable

Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley is looking to make major penalty calls reviewable in the future after his team was thwarted by a controversial decision late in Game 7 of its opening-round series against the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday.

"I believe (a major penalty) should be a reviewable play - a coach's challenge," Foley said during a press conference Thursday, per Caroline Bleakley of KLAS-TV Las Vegas. "I think that a coach should be able to challenge a major penalty, particularly in the last period of a game, and particularly during the playoffs."

The Golden Knights held a comfortable 3-0 lead with just over 10 minutes left in the third period when forward Cody Eakin was handed a controversial five-minute major and a game misconduct for cross-checking Sharks captain Joe Pavelski. San Jose subsequently converted four times on the ensuing power play and went on to win the contest and the series in overtime.

Foley insisted during the press conference that he's already working on making major penalties reviewable in the future.

"I've already been engaged (in trying to make those calls reviewable)," Foley said. "I believe the league is thinking about it and is going to be receptive to that kind of change. We'll have a Board of Governors meeting here in a couple of months and I'm sure it will be brought up ..."

Foley believes that if the officials were forced to regroup and take a second look at the play, the outcome would've been different.

"Despite the fact that Sharks fans were going crazy over the perceived hit, if it had been a coaches challenge and it had been reviewed, there wouldn't have been a penalty, in my view," Foley said.

The league issued an apology to Golden Knights general manager George McPhee on Thursday for the referee's costly decision in the elimination contest.