NEW YORK -- Since Luke Voit was called up last August at the end of his most recent minor league stint, the New York Yankees have played 91 regular-season games.

Voit has appeared in nearly all of them.

As a result, his name has suddenly become as recognizable among the Yankees' fan base as Aaron Judge's, Giancarlo Stanton's, Gary Sanchez's and Didi Gregorius'.

The once-unknown first baseman hasn't just become one of the most identifiable faces on the team, he also has been a consistent presence in a Bronx Bombers lineup that, at least across the past 91 regular-season games, often has been without some of the aforementioned megastars. Key injuries at the end of last season and the start of this one have routinely depleted the roster.

But despite the various pains the Yankees have endured this spring, they somehow have one of the best records in all of baseball, and are leading the American League East.

Injuries aside, it has been business as usual.

"There's just been a good energy, consistently, day in and day out about the way these guys have gone about things," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.

Now that they have passed Memorial Day and are a third of the way through a season in which they've lacked most of their expected top contributors, one big question is: How have the Yankees done this?

Here's another: Who's the MVP, the man most responsible for keeping them afloat?

A strong case certainly could be made for Voit, the burly slugger who's tied for second on the team with 13 home runs. He has missed only one of the Yankees' 53 games to this point, splitting time at first base and designated hitter.

Batting lately out of the No. 2 hole normally occupied by Judge, Voit has been one of several saviors for the banged-up Bombers.

"He's brought so much to the table for us," Boone said. "Obviously between the lines, he's been really good. He's loved coming here and being a Yankee. They love him in that room. He brings something to the park every day, just from an energy standpoint, and we're so lucky to have him."

Voit brings so much energy during his home run trots that he left his teammates bewildered Saturday afternoon when he rather calmly glided around the bases after the 470-foot shot that he parked into a bush just below the outfield concourse at Kauffman Stadium.

Typically when he hits a no-doubter, Voit gives a little quick hop out of the batter's box, a la Sammy Sosa, before beginning his jog. Virtually any time he slaps a ball deep, other Yankees are on the lookout for the move.

This time, though, after he paused briefly to view the deep drive -- the longest homer of his three-season career, which was hit in his home state in front of about 60 family members and against the team that made him a 32nd-round draft pick out of high school -- Voit just put his head down and started running. There was no hop.

"Everyone was like, 'Why didn't you do the hop?'" Voit said, laughing. "I didn't mean anything bad [by admiring the homer], but it was one of those you don't hit very often."

Voit's most pressing short-term goal is a team one. He longs to finally see batting orders that resemble those used in last year's playoffs, ones that feature Judge, Stanton, Gregorius and Sanchez along with him.

"I'm super anxious for those guys to get back," Voit said.

Naturally, he believes each player's mere presence can help the Yankees win. But there is another reason he's eager to have them back in the lineup.

"Because I might be able to see more fastballs than what I'm seeing," he said.

It's true. Since Judge joined the injured list April 21, Voit has seen fastballs on 33.2 percent of the pitches thrown to him. That's just below the league average of 35.4 percent, and it's way below the 47.1 percent he saw while Judge was healthy and helping protect him in the order. Constantly fed fastballs during that three-week, early-season stretch, Voit hit four home runs.

In the 91 regular-season games since Voit made his final ascent to New York's 25-man roster, the Yankees have trotted out 88 different lineups. Only nine times has he been in the same batting order as Judge, Stanton, Sanchez and Gregorius. Voit actually didn't think, aside from last year's playoffs, that he ever had.

Perhaps within a few very short weeks, the lineup he's seeking will become a staple.

Gregorius is at most another two weeks away from a full return from offseason Tommy John surgery. Stanton, currently shut down due to an unexpected, non-related setback in his rehab from a biceps/shoulder injury, could be back about the same time. Judge continues progressing from a left oblique issue, and may get back sometime before the end of June.

Sanchez, who was on the injured list earlier this season, has been back since late April. And so has his bat.

Since his return off the IL, Sanchez has 10 homers. After an opposite-field, eighth-inning solo blast Monday, he's up to 16 for the season. In 2018, when he was limited to 89 games because of injury, he had 18 home runs.

Of Sanchez's post-IL homers, four have traveled more than 440 feet.

Which takes us back to the MVP question. If it isn't Voit or Sanchez, who is it?

"Guys like Gio [Urshela] and Thairo [Estrada], it's unbelievable how some of those guys aren't playing every day, and they're stepping up in huge situations for us," Voit said.

Added Yankees lifer Brett Gardner on the bevy of Triple-A talent the Yankees have employed this season: "When you have guys like that that are literally fighting for a job, fighting to stay up here day-to-day, it's fun to see."

As Gardner spoke in front of his home locker, the player Urshela is replacing, injured third baseman Miguel Andujar, walked by with his right arm in a black sling. A little more than a week ago, Andujar had surgery on his partially torn right labrum.

"Como estas?" the veteran leader Gardner said, asking in Spanish how Andujar was feeling.

"Tranquilo," Andujar responded.

That's actually a good word -- quiet -- to describe the defensive wizardry Urshela has routinely demonstrated in Andujar's absence.

Whether throwing from his backside across to first base, or throwing while falling or charging and making barehanded scoops, Urshela has looked quite smooth and easygoing in producing his share of "wow" moments.

"He laughs at a ground ball coming to him," Boone said earlier this season. "It's like he's getting into a warm bath. He just picks it up real nice, you know?"

After one particularly jaw-dropping snag and seated toss in Kansas City over the weekend, Boone doubled down on that statement.

"That's that warm bath I'm talking about," Boone said of the play. "He was over there taking a bath."

Urshela did have a rare miscue Sunday that ultimately cost the Yankees in a 10th-inning loss to the Royals. On the game's last play, a grounder chopped toward Urshela took a higher hop than he anticipated and got past him for a walk-off Royals hit.

Boone, a former major league third baseman himself, believes Kauffman Stadium's infield, hardened at the end of a long, sunny day, may have contributed.

"You're dead there. You've just got to stay in your legs as best you can," Boone said. "You almost know at that point in the game where it's dried out, and this isn't the greatest field anyway. You're a little bit at the mercy. You've just got to fight the fight and be able to make the play.

"Most usually really good infielders kind of create their hops. That's a situation where you're up against it."

In addition to his generally solid defense, Urshela has delivered timely hits throughout the season. In 14 plate appearances with two outs and runners in scoring position entering Monday, Urshela had eight RBIs with a 1.000 OPS.

"Even when we got him last year [via a late-season trade], I don't know if we expected this kind of offensive output that has been really consistent since Day 1," Boone said.

Aside from Voit, Sanchez and little-known fill-ins like Urshela, a case could be made that starting pitcher Domingo German has been the key piece to making this whole Yankees operation flow. The unexpected ace of the staff was the first pitcher in the big leagues to nine wins, although his record dropped to 9-2 after he allowed seven runs and four homers Sunday. Against the Royals, he has two losses and an 8.18 ERA. Against everyone else, he's undefeated with a cool 2.47.

And when it comes to leading perhaps the quietest early-season Yankees MVP campaign, the 35-year-old Gardner gets the nod.

He's batting .240 with a .786 OPS (his career-high is .804) and has already hit eight home runs. At this pace, he'd set a career-high in long balls (21 in 2017). Considering the work he put in this winter, that might be expected.

"I made some adjustments over the course of the offseason and spring to try and drive the ball a little more and do some things a little differently," Gardner said. "Nothing major."

Such as?

"You can't just go up there and say I'm going to drive the ball," he said. "There's obviously got to be a process to it. So for me, it was just a matter of cleaning up a couple things in my swing, and putting myself where I was capable of doing that.

"[That was] anything from my stance to where my feet are, to the angle of my feet, to the height of my hands, to the timing when I get started, to my load. Nothing major, just trying to clean up a few things to put myself in a position to be more consistent."

Speed is still a weapon for Gardner, too, as evidenced by his seven doubles and three triples. One of those triples came on the Yankees' recent road trip, in the same game that he hustled from first to home for a key run.

"That's just the way I've always kind of played, and it's important to bring that energy," Gardner said. "I think these guys get a kick out of seeing me still be able to run a little bit. I talk a little trash to them. I tell Clint [Frazier] and Tyler Wade and those guys that I'm still faster than them."

Whether or not he's actually faster than some of the organization's speedsters, the Yankees see the Gardner's style of play rub off on their current underdog-laden roster.

"It has a profound effect," Boone said. "That's one of the ways that he impacts the room and the clubhouse, is the way he goes about his business. There's an edge, there's a toughness, there's a blue collar that is who he is. And that's part of his game. Hopefully guys always take notice of that, and I think they do."

Yankees players are noticing something else too. They're noticing the work of the men they consider the real MVPs of this challenging start to the season.

"It all starts with our coaching staff. They put in a lot of work behind the scenes to put us in a position to be successful," Gardner said. "That's the one thing that's been constant.

"None of those guys have gone on the IL."

CONCORD, N.C. – The most harrowing moment of Saturday night’s portion of the United Rentals Patriot Nationals at The Dirt Track at Charlotte came during time trials, when Parker Price-Miller lost a wheel and flipped in the third turn.

Luckily Price-Miller was able to climb from his car and walk away from the crash unscathed, though his participation was scratched for the remainder of the night.

“The car is junk after that one,” he noted upon his arrival back to the pit area.

Price-Miller waited to see a replay of the incident before detailing what he felt from inside the car, but said he had “absolutely no warning” before he started tumbling through the corner.

“I just went into turn three, turned the car, heard a snap, and then the motor revved up and that was all she wrote after that,” Price-Miller told SPEED SPORT. “When you’re going that fast, you just don’t want to hit the wall with the cage open that hard. There’s been a lot of issues like that in the past few years and injuries … but I just closed my eyes and hoped for the best.

“It wasn’t that bad of a wreck,” he added. “We just kind of hit in a few of the wrong spots … hit the top of the cage and it caved the cage in, but I’m OK and I’ll be good to take on Mansfield in a week.”

Price-Miller’s flip called to mind several rule changes announced last August designed with driver safety in mid, including a major addition to the roll cage and rules requiring a steel left-front radius rod, the strengthening of the wing posts, and the nerf bars being mounted with three points.

The roll cage changes made a difference, according to Price-Miller.

“I’m just glad we didn’t have to experience any injuries or that major cage-to-wall type of a hit like some others have gone through in the past few years,” said Price-Miller. “My MAXIM Chassis held up really well, and I can’t thank them enough for good race cars.

“Obviously these support systems have made a difference, because I hit with the cage pretty hard and it didn’t collapse, so that’s a good thing.

Though he wasn’t too enthusiastic about it, Price-Miller did say that occasionally, crashes like the spill he took are necessary to make sure that safety swings as big as the one that the sprint car industry took before the start of this season are ones that pay off by keeping drivers safer than ever before.

“You’ve got to have tests like that to see if we’re going the right direction for safety; you just hate any time you become the test dummy and, unluckily, I was the test dummy tonight,” he pointed out. “But it happened, we’re OK and we’ll go on to race another day.

“These cars are safe and I’m thankful to have walked away from that one.”

INDIANAPOLIS – John Menard’s famed neon-yellow colors have been adorning cars at the Indianapolis 500 for years, but the Wisconsin business owner had never been able to taste the milk in victory lane.

Sunday afternoon, that goose-egg was finally erased, as Simon Pagenaud took Menards to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway winner’s circle as a sponsor in The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

Menard’s history at IMS is well-documented, and his cars were part of some of the greatest heartbreaks in Indianapolis 500 history, including Tony Stewart’s engine failure while leading in 1998 and Robby Gordon famously running out of fuel on the final lap one year later.

After walking away from Indy car racing at the end of the 2004 season, Menard returned with his chain of Midwestern home-improvement stores to the Indianapolis 500 with Pagenaud in 2016.

Three years later, the duo are Indianapolis 500 champions together.

“You ever watch that movie called The Candidate when that guy works and works and works and finally gets elected, and after the election he won, he gazed into the mirror and says to himself, ‘What the hell do I do now?’ That’s the way I feel. We just won the Indianapolis 500.”

Menard reflected on his four-decade history in American open-wheel racing on Sunday evening following Pagenaud’s victory, a roller-coaster of ups and downs that saw some of the most famous names in Indy car history drive entries under the Team Menard banner.

In addition to Stewart and Gordon, Al Unser, Nelson Piquet, Greg Ray, the late Scott Brayton and even 20-time World of Outlaws sprint car champion Steve Kinser drove for Menard over the years.

“It was 40 years ago when I first came down here in 1979, and I didn’t get all the way in, and I had a big sign that we used to put up over the garages,” Menard recalled. “So I’m dragging the sign on Georgetown road, and I’m walking — I didn’t know where the entrance was. I didn’t know enough to go there on 16th and drive under. So this guy at the gate in a yellow shirt was standing there, and he goes, ‘Where are you going with that sign?’ and I told him I wanted to get in the garage area.

“He said, ‘I’ll open the gate for you,’ and he unlocked the gate and let me in,” Menard added. “I didn’t have a credential. I didn’t know where I was going. … I think he thought I was crazy, but we had a good time. That was the first time I was here, 40 years ago, and I’ve been trying (to win) ever since. I was some stubborn, stupid guy. But this is great fun.”

Menard had nothing but praise for his driver on Sunday, after Pagenaud led 116 of 200 laps en route to both his and his sponsor’s first victories in the Indianapolis 500.

“Simon is just one wonderful human being. If you get to know him, you’ll love him,” said Menard. “Second of all, if you watched the last few laps of this race, then you know that as a race car driver, Simon is really, really good. I mean, he was – Rossi is really, really good, and that could have ended badly in turn one or two or three or four … or a lot of other places, but that was just plain good racing.

“That was two really talented guys, just going after each other, back and forth, back and forth. Simon didn’t give up, though. He’s the real deal.”

Though Menard won the Brickyard 400 in 2011 with son Paul, that was a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race and wasn’t the biggest event at IMS.

Sunday’s triumph was the pinnacle, according to Menard.

“That 400 was a NASCAR race, which is pretty distinct from this race. That was probably the highlight of my personal racing career, just because it was my son that won, but this ranks right in there,” said John Menard. “I’ll tell you what, this is a good deal, and I can’t thank Team Penske and Indianapolis Motor Speedway enough for all the great memories and times over the years that we’ve had here.

“It’s amazing. What a feeling this is.”

SPEED SPORT has been reporting on and covering motorsports happenings from all over the world for 85 years, so we thought it would be fun to take a look back in the archives to see what happened 10, 25 and 50 years ago each week.

So check out what SPEED SPORT was covering 10, 25 and 50 years ago this week in Looking Back!

10 Years Ago (May 27, 2009): Helio Castroneves repaid Roger Penske’s faith in him with his third Indianapolis 500 victory. Castroneves, who on April 17 had gained his acquittal in a tax evasion case, became the ninth driver to win the Indianapolis 500 three times. He took the lead on lap 142 and led the rest of the distance to give Penske his record 15th Indianapolis 500 win over Dan Wheldon and Danica Patrick.

Other Happenings: David Reutimann was in the right place at the right time when the rains came at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, allowing him to collect his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series triumph in the Coca-Cola 600; Jenson Button continued Brawn’s Cinderella season with a victory in the Monaco Grand Prix; Chuck Gurney Jr. added another page to the history books for the Gurney family with a triumph in the Night Before the 500 midget race at O’Reilly Raceway Park.

25 Years Ago (May 25, 1994): Al Unser Sr. and Johnny Rutherford, two of Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s legendary figures, both officially retired from Indy car racing. Unser’s retirement came after the four-time Indianapolis 500 winner said he felt his skills were no longer up to the task of putting a car in the Indianapolis 500 field. Rutherford, on the other hand, had not driven a race car since 1988, but did borrow a car from A.J. Foyt and make one final tour of Indianapolis Motor Speedway before making his retirement official.

Other Happenings: Geoff Bodine earned a $250,000 payday with his victory in the Winston Select at Charlotte Motor Speedway, outrunning Sterling Marlin; Top Fuel legend Jimmy Nix was killed in an accident at the Texas Motorplex that saw his dragster go out of control and hit a guardrail; Sammy Swindell headlined the list of weekend winners for the World of Outlaws that also included Steve Kinser and Stevie Smith.

50 Years Ago (May 28, 1969): LeeRoy Yarbrough enjoyed a perfect day at Charlotte Motor Speedway aboard Junior Johnson’s 1969 Mercury Cyclone, winning the 10th running of the World 100 stock car race. He led 274 laps and finished two laps ahead of Donnie Allison in second. Yarbrough’s victory at Charlotte came after he qualified eighth for the Indianapolis 500 driving the Jim Robbins Special turbocharged Ford Eagle.

Other Happenings: A.J. Foyt, with his father serving as crew chief, qualified on the pole for the Indianapolis 500 with an average speed of 170.568 mph; Jim Paschal gave the AMC Javelin it’s first victory in NASCAR Grand Touring competition at Baton Rouge Int’l Speedway; Buzz Gregory held on to win the Little 500 at Sun Valley Speedway despite failing brakes and low fuel; team owner Ray Fox announced he was quitting stock car racing to pursue a less hectic lifestyle.

INDIANAPOLIS – Simon Pagenaud earned $2,669,529 from an overall purse of $13,090,536 for his victory Sunday in the 103rd Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Pagenaud, from Montmorillon, France, captured his first victory in The Greatest Spectacle in Racing in the No. 22 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet. He beat 2016 winner Alexander Rossi to the finish by .2086 of a second to score the record-extending 18th Indianapolis 500 victory for Team Penske.

Pagenaud took the lead for good on lap 199 of the 200-lap race. He led seven times for 116 laps, becoming the first pole sitter to win since Helio Castroneves in 2009.

Rossi, from Nevada City, California, earned $759,179 in the No. 27 NAPA Auto Parts Honda. He led five times for 22 laps, continuing his streak of leading in all four of his Indianapolis 500 starts.

2017 Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato earned $540,454 for finishing third in the No. 30 Mi-Jack/Panasonic Honda.

2017 NTT IndyCar Series champion Josef Newgarden earned $462,904 for finishing fourth in the No. 2 Shell V-Power Nitro Plus Team Penske Chevrolet.

Rounding out the top five was 2018 winner and 2014 series champion Will Power in the No. 12 Verizon 5G Team Penske Chevrolet, who earned $444,554.

Team Penske placed three cars in the top five.

Santino Ferrucci earned $435,404 for his seventh-place finish after starting 23rd in the No. 19 Cly-Del Manufacturing Honda, including $50,000 for being named Rookie of the Year. Ferrucci, who led one lap, was the highest-finishing rookie among the six drivers making their first Indianapolis 500 starts this year.

LAKEVILLE, Conn. – A true Cinderella story unfolded on Monday at Lime Rock Park after Chris Dyson claimed the Trans-Am presented by Pirelli victory in the No. 20 Plaid Ford Mustang.

Ernie Francis Jr. recovered from an early-race setback to claim a hard-fought second place result ahead of Josh Hurley to complete the podium as Trans-Am returned to the traditional Memorial Day weekend event at Lime Rock Park. Tomy Drissi scored fourth at the finish, with Paul Fix crossing the line fifth.

Starting from the pole, Dyson never surrendered the lead to claim his first TA victory of the season following 100 minutes of flat out racing, just days after suffering a crash in sprint car competition.

Dyson, unsure if he was going to be medically cleared to participate following a wreck in the Hoosier 100 on Thursday that sent him to the hospital, slipped on the glass slipper to seize the points lead in the tight TA championship, making for a perfect ending to his fairytale weekend.

“To think two days ago I was laying in a hospital bed, not knowing if I was going to make it here,” said Dyson. “I told my dad they were going to have to tie me to this bed if they’re going to keep me from racing in Lime Rock. Luckily I was cleared to race because this might be my biggest career win. It’s so special to see all my friends and family members waiving as I drive by, it’s just a fantastic feeling.”

Starting from pole, Dyson didn’t shy away from unleashing the 850+ horsepower around the tight Connecticut circuit that’s knowns as road racing’s bullring.

Muscling his way through traffic, Dyson started to build a gap from Hurley in the No. 03 McAleese and Associates Chevrolet Camaro, who was pressuring the hometown favorite for the lead.

“I was just waiting for Chris to make a mistake, and the mistake never came,” Hurley said. “I got caught in traffic. This course is basically an oval in the woods  with limited areas to pass. Lapped traffic played a huge role in the outcome and traffic just didn’t fall into my favor.”

Starting from row two, Hurley got the jump on Ernie Francis Jr. in the No. 98 Frameless Shower Doors Ford Mustang entering turn one to take second. Francis tailed Hurley, waiting for the perfect opportunity to attack. But it was late-race lapped traffic that allowed the defending TA champion to pay back Hurley, reclaiming second with four laps left in the race. The podium finish edged Francis back into championship contention, only trailing the newest championship leader Dyson by eight points.

“It felt like a Late Model Race out there,” Francis said. “We were never a single lap without traffic. Never a lap where we were trying to get around a car and figure out a way to go. It’s really tough to pass here. Every time Josh and I caught up to traffic it was a battle on who could get around it quickest. We came up to a large group near the end of the race and I was able to get through the whole the fastest. The podium really came down to who could work traffic the fastest.”

The race featured three classes of competition, with SuperGT and GT machines sharing the track with the high-horsepowered TA class entries.

In a perfect balance of battling competitors while watching for the TA traffic in his mirrors, Fall Line Motorsports driver Mark Boden went flag-to-flag in the SGT class race for his first win of the season in the No. 46 Beverage Flavors Int’l/Porsche 991 GT3 Cup .

Brian Kleeman in the No. 07 Advanced Composite Products Inc./Cadillac CTSV SGT took second while Adrian Wlostowski in the No. 96 F.A.S.T. Auto/Ford Mustang found himself on the bottom step of the podium in third.

“It’s awesome to win here at Lime Rock Park,” said Boden. “The set up to the car was great and the whole crowd here is wonderful. It was hot out here and the Pirelli tires held up for me to finish on top.”

In a near perfect drive, Steven Davison wheeled his No. 22 Davinci Plastic Surgery / Aston Martin Vantage to score the GT class victory.

“Sometimes surviving is winning, and that was today,” said Davison. “I am happy to be here and these fans here at Lime Rock are some of the best in the country.”

Kerry Hitt won the Masters award in the TA class following a 10th-place finish in the No. 19 Advanced Composite Products Inc. Cadillac CTSV.

BOSTON -- Commissioner Gary Bettman considers the NHL's current video review system "a blessing and a curse." There are times when it's a vital mechanism for getting calls on the ice correct. But in the 2019 Stanley Cup playoffs, there have been a dozen instances of controversial plays that couldn't be remedied with replay because they fell outside of their scope.

Before Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, Bettman said the NHL will consider expanding video review when the league's competition committee and general managers meet next month.

"Clearly, what we already do still may not be enough," Bettman said. "If we are to extend video replay -- and we will be looking at that possibility -- we must find the right balance when it comes to how much more to use and when to use it without affecting the flow, pace and excitement of our game. Perhaps most important, we've got to have a system that enables us to be consistent. This is the challenge, and it's a challenge we are focused on and we will meet."

Currently, the NHL uses video review to determine the validity of goals scored and to assess goalie interference calls. The league also uses it to determine potential offside plays when a goal is scored. These reviews are initiated by on-ice officials, by the "war room" in Toronto or through coach's challenges during the game.

Bettman said the potential expansion of video reviews is a complicated issue. He said the league is "very" concerned with slowing down the pace of the game. But the bigger concern, he said, is what the parameters of expanded video reviews look like.

"We want to get it right, but what is the 'it'? How far do you go back? What actually affects the actual result?" he said.

Take that missed hand pass that handed Game 3 of the Western Conference finals to the San Jose Sharks in overtime.

"What I thought [at the time] was that it would be good if I kept my head from exploding," Bettman said. "I was unhappy. We all were."

But he argued that if you review a missed hand pass, where is the cutoff for when you can review a play?

"What if the hand pass happened a minute earlier? Or it cleared the zone? You can roll it back endlessness," he said. "If we decide to extend replay, we have to define it in a way where we don't ruin the game and get it right."

Yet while playoff controversies such as the missed hand pass, a missed puck off the netting in the Boston Bruins vs. Columbus Blue Jackets series and a phantom major penalty called in Game 7 between the Sharks and Vegas Golden Knights seem to argue for expanded replay, there are many players and general managers who argue that video review should be reduced. More specifically, they believe one aspect of it should be that offside plays should no longer be reviewed.

The spirit of the rule was to catch egregious missed calls, such as the offside on Colorado Avalanche forward Matt Duchene in 2013 that inspired the rule change. But over time, it has been used for minutia, with officials counting video pixels on unclear images to determine if a scoring play was onside.

Bettman, however, doesn't have an appetite for reduction of the video review system, even though it has been a topic of conversation in previous general managers meetings.

"Whatever your view is of video replay, what we're doing is working well, and I don't think you can go backward anymore," he said. "I think that ship has sailed."

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said it is more likely that there would be a rule change related to offside than the elimination of video reviews for offside plays. "I think if anything, there would be consideration to changing the rule instead. And then it's probably still a pixel review, but it might be friendlier to the players on the ice," he said.

But if the NHL competition committee -- a group of league officials, executives and current players that is scheduled to meet June 11 in Toronto -- determines that they'd like to see offside taken out of the video review system, Daly said Bettman would listen. "Gary always has an open mind about everything," he said.

Well, not everything. Bettman shut down the idea that all calls made on the ice should be open to video reviews.

"It's not as simple as saying, 'Let's review everything.' The flow of our game would be interrupted if we reviewed everything. It's not possible," he said.

Other news from the commissioner's state of the NHL address:

Former Los Angeles Kings defenseman Slava Voynov to become unrestricted free agent

Voynov will become an unrestricted free agent at the midpoint of next season, per an independent arbitrator's ruling that Voynov already served half of his yearlong suspension.

But his eligibility is more complicated than that. Since Voynov is on the voluntary retirement list, there are certain mechanisms for his return to the NHL. That includes the ability of the Kings to tender a contract to Voynov, as long as the amount is "reasonable," according to Daly, which would grant the team additional rights in potentially moving his rights.

In other words, though suspended players can be traded, Voynov can't as long as he is on the voluntary retirement list. Tendering him an offer would allow that kind of move, per Daly.

No preseason games in China next season

"That doesn't mean we're slowing down any kind of Chinese strategy," Daly said. "The reason for that has to do with the 70th anniversary of the rise of power of the communist party and Mao Zedong and our inability to book appropriate arrangements in arenas and cities because of that celebration at that time of the year."

The NHL has hosted two preseason games in China in each of the past two years.

Daly said the league will continue to invest in grassroots and school programs to fuel the growth of hockey in China. The deputy commissioner said the expectation would return in the fall of 2020.

No change on Olympics stance

Bettman said the NHL has not changed its stance on sending players to the Olympics. The NHL took an Olympic break from 1998 to 2014 but did not for the 2018 games in Pyeonchang, which angered many players.

Bettman said the IIHF has not communicated a deadline for when it needs to know about NHL player participation. The next Winter Olympics will be held in 2022 in Beijing.

NHL undecided on starting women's league

The NHL is letting "the dust settle" on the women's hockey landscape before deciding whether to launch its own women's league, according to Bettman.

"Whether it's appropriate or not to get involved or start our own league is not something everyone agrees on," Bettman said.

More than 200 women's hockey players announced that they will not be playing in a league next season until a more viable, sustainable league emerges. The NHL has previously said it doesn't want to interfere with any existing leagues. There is currently one women's professional league in North America, the NWHL, and Bettman alluded to rumors about another league sprouting up.

The NHL invited women's hockey players to participate at the 2019 All-Star game, and the NHL helped facilitate the Canada-USA series last year. Bettman said the league will continue to support "one-offs" such as that as it explores whether to get involved in a more meaningful way.

Kuraly, Bruins rally, beat Blues 4-2 in Stanley Cup opener

Sean Kuraly scored to break a third-period tie and assisted on another goal to help the Boston Bruins rally from a two-goal deficit and beat the St. Louis Blues 4-2 on Monday night in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final.