The NHL has taken steps to increase scoring since the lockout, making rule changes and decreasing goalie equipment size. Thus far, it has worked. Scoring is up around the league, and the fans couldn’t be happier, right? Not necessarily.
Several of the rule changes revolved around the power play. The face-off is now in the end of the team that took the penalty. If a defending team clears the puck over the glass, that’s a penalty. They’ve increased the restrictions on obstruction, interference and hooks and slashes. These rules have all led to an increase in power play efficiency.
Since the lockout, power play efficiency has gone up substantially. While the leaders remain about the same, there are now more and more teams hitting power-play success rates of 20-25%. As of this writing, 16 teams have power-play efficiency of over 20%, with Philadelphia at an impressive 26%. 3 teams are on the bubble in the 19-20% range.
Now, these stats will likely decrease somewhat by the end of the season, but last year, 9 teams hit the 20% mark. The playoffs are no different. Chicago had a power play success rate of 27% in last year’s playoffs and 7 teams hit the 20% mark. The year previous, Calgary also hit 27%.
Now, these statistics are very telling, but they’re not really representative of the point I’m trying to make here. Hockey is a game of momentum, and with roughly 1 in 5 power plays leading to goals, this puts a lot of power in the hands of the officials. This gets especially bad when the call is clearly the wrong call.
Take, for example, Toronto’s latest loss to Carolina. Leading 4-3 in the third period, Ian White was called for a 4 minute high-sticking infraction when it was in fact Stephan Yelle’s stick that made contact. This killed all momentum the Leafs had, and forced them to play defensively for over 3 minutes before eventually allowing the game tying goal. The momentum swing entirely in the direction of the Hurricanes and as a result they came away with the win. I will not try to say that this is the entire reason that Toronto lost, but it really hurt the team and something like that can ruin the game for fans.
Let’s go back to last year’s playoffs for some more analysis on the issue. Last year’s playoffs featured 18 games in which teams took double digits in infractions. That’s not double digit penalty minutes, that’s ten or more penalties in one game. It also featured a team taking 9 consecutive penalties over the course of a period and a half. Another game featured a team taking no penalties. Many of these calls prove to be inconsistent from one game to the next and from referee to referee.
I am all for increasing the scoring and opening up the flow of the game, but the NHL is treading a dangerous line here in the power that they’re giving their officials. We need to have further clarification on the rules so that every referee is clear on what is and what is not a penalty, and perhaps we can put a system in place to allow coaches to challenge a call, much like the NFL. We go upstairs to review possible goals, so why not penalties? Let’s leave the outcomes of the games up to the players that play them.
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Despite our incessant screaming to make the correct calls, referees are still only human (for now at least) and are prone to making mistakes. Can we really blame them?
If these new rules provoke players to draw out penalties then why not increase fines for players that are caught? I know Avery has been fined before, but a $1000 fine is pretty minimal. Perhaps banning them from future games would be more appropriate and would deter players from falling over from a little love tap.
Of course, I’m all for cutting down on obstruction, boarding, high-sticking, hooking, charging, etc… but it’s when these calls become ‘questionable’, you know like the ‘barely touched the guy but my team is winning so I get called for it’ kind of questionable, or just out and out wrong calls. That’s where the assessment of what is and is not a penalty needs to improve.
Let’s not forget that the harsher penalties for infractions are not merely there to super size scoring, but have been instituted to protect players. Of course the changing of any rule will have other ramifications, and if taking severe measures acts as even the slightest deterrent to shield our brightest players, then isn’t that a rule worth changing?
I agree that referees own a strangle hold over game flow now more than ever and something needs to be done. Coach challenges is a good start but there needs to be steep repercussions to coaches that lose the challenege. That would stop coaches from challenging a penality so that their PK line can get a rest.
As far as the NHL changing it; need and want are two very different things. The efficient powerplays, and rulse that allow the skilled players to shine makes for exciting hockey (albeit not fair at times) as you are more likely to pay more attention to the game if there are back and fourth powerplays. This also allows any team to win on any given night. Somewhere, Gary Bettman is smiling.
Nicely summed up. The actions to increase scoring have only helped to make things even more chaotic and uneven, and are at best a band-aid that will expose the core wound once the adhesive wears off. What is needed is to have the would itself healed, but I fear the NHL isn’t up for paying that bill anytime soon.