Mike Chen's Hockey Blog
Next entry: Ask (The Spokesman For) Jim Balsillie
Previous entry: Hell (ESPN) Freezes Over
Here’s How You Solve Playoff OT
by Mike Chen on 05/04/09 at 04:14 PM ET
Comments (15)
Ok, so now comes a report that Brenden Shanahan and members of the competition committee were pretty darn close to recommending 4-on-4 playoff overtime following one OT period. Keep in mind that competition committee recommendations don’t automatically get installed in the game as they’ve got to pass Board of Governors approval first.
Still, the fact that the people on the committee—a collection of players and hockey personnel—gave changing overtime such a long look is really disturbing. I try to be open-minded and progressive when it comes to the game but changing playoff overtime falls squarely in the idiotic category.
Here’s something that might be easier. In fact, it’d probably prevent a lot of games going to overtime in the first place, and it’d level the playing field for every team.
Call the damn penalties.
Now I know we bitch about NHL officiating every playoff but I’d say since the lockout, the usual regular season-to-playoff slip hasn’t been as drastic as it was prior to the lockout. I suppose this year’s has followed that same pattern, but it’s because the officiating on interference really fell in the second half of the game. I suppose that they’re so focused on making stick fouls black and white (is a stick horizontal and did it touch the opposing player?) that they forgot to call these all together.
Here’s my challenge to you. Pick any playoff game, put aside your allegiances for five minutes of playing time and watch for interference—that is, any defensive movement impeding a forechecker when the puck isn’t immediately in play. If the puck is dumped from the redline and a defenseman gets in the way of the forechecker right past the blueline, that’s technically interference. That’s all over the place. If you put a quarter away for every instance of this on either side, you’ll probably be able to go down to your local pub and buy yourself a drink.
In the third period and beyond, this stuff gets worse. Why? Well, at that point, players are exhausted, and that fatigue tends to cause players to “cheat” a little more. Also, if the refs have called the game loose to that point, they know what they can get away with. If you’re running on fumes in double OT and you know you can get away with bearhugging on a guy in the slow, why *wouldn’t* you do it to prevent a goal?
I’ve said before that I’ll never, ever understand why swallowing a whistle means “letting the players play.” There are rules for a reason, and if you want to have a league where holding, hooking, and interference are allowed, then eliminate them from the rules. If you’re going to let the players play, then that really means you should be calling the rules so that any cheating players are penalized and the honest skilled players are rewarded.
And if you do that in overtime, rather than just letting all these penalties slide, you probably won’t get to triple OT.
Calling the rules—what a concept, huh?
Filed in: NHL | Mike Chen's Hockey Blog | Permalink
Tags: Officiating,
Comments
It got very tiresome to watch the Wings and Ducks grab each other and get away with it in the OT periods yesterday, I must admit, and I’m a Wings fan.
Posted by George Malik from South Lyon, MI on 05/04/09 at 05:09 PM ET
Call the penalties is right, unless your name isRandy Carlyle and the penalties are called on your gang of buffoons.
Posted by yreland from Van Dieman's Land on 05/04/09 at 05:20 PM ET
unless your name is Randy Carlyle and the penalties are called on your gang of buffoons.
I guess we can’t find out if Babcock complains about OT penalty-kills if the Red Wings never encounter them.
Posted by Earl Sleek from Anaheim, CA on 05/04/09 at 05:34 PM ET
I guess we can’t find out if Babcock complains about OT penalty-kills if the Red Wings never encounter them.
Count the number of times throughout the entire game that some Duck wrapped both his arms around a Wing and threw him to the ice. Now count the number of times that was called.
No complain.
Posted by Garth on 05/04/09 at 05:58 PM ET
Well, I’m quite sure we could come up with differing totals on that. I dunno—I think there’s more reputation talking here than actual examples.
It’s not my complaint, really. Just Mike’s writing a piece here about penalties being called in OT, some prior commenter starts calling out Carlyle (who at least is being paid to gripe about refs), and I think it’s fair to point out who actually spent two minutes yesterday killing an OT penalty.
Posted by Earl Sleek from Anaheim, CA on 05/04/09 at 06:38 PM ET
I guess we can’t find out if Babcock complains about OT penalty-kills if the Red Wings never encounter them.
We had to kill OT penalties in the freakin Finals, and Babs never bitched about them. Both coaches will lobby refs during the game, but bitching afterward is stupid. Then again, I also don’t think coaches should call out players in the media.
Posted by Osrt on 05/04/09 at 06:53 PM ET
Then again, I also don’t think coaches should call out players in the media.
To clarify, I’m not accusing Carlyle of doing this. I just don’t like coaches or players taking matters to the media when they belong elsewhere.
Posted by Osrt on 05/04/09 at 06:55 PM ET
To clarify, I’m not accusing Carlyle of doing this.
Actually, that one’s fair. Carlyle did call out Bobby Ryan for a mediocre G2.
Posted by Earl Sleek from Anaheim, CA on 05/04/09 at 06:58 PM ET
Mike Chen, the Voice of Reason. Excellent suggestion. Ain’t-ever-gonna-happen, but we can still dream…
P.S. get bent Carlyle.
Posted by mudshark on 05/04/09 at 08:31 PM ET
Carlyle is paid to coach, not to do his best Crosby impression in front of the media.
Of all coaches, it’s incredibly novel that he’s complaining about penalties. Look inward if you have complaints…
Posted by Nathan from the scoresheet! on 05/05/09 at 07:35 AM ET
Advice to Randy Carlyle:
If you don’t want Franzen—or any other Red Wing—to run into your goalie, tell your players to stop pushing them into him.
Not that I’m hoping Hiller gets injured, but it would be pretty ironic if he got hurt because his stupid teammates insist on pushing Wings players into him. Even so, it’s hard to decide on my favorite Duck moment of this series so far…
—The Mike Brown BS on Hudler (and Colin Campbell’s typical “wheel-o-justice” nitwittery afterward)
—Ducks pushing Franzen into Hiller (after the goal, BTW) and Carlyle whining it should have been a penalty
—Ducks bench threatening Stuart for making a clean hit…especially after the Mike Brown BS on Hudler
—One foot, two foot, red foot, slew foot (aka The Scott Niedermayer Story)
—The multitude of cross checks and other garbage way after the whistle
What’s next? Probably another Applied Physics lesson from Sasquatch. (My favorite is still when he tried to run Yzerman from behind, and ended up taking himself out.)
Posted by YzermanZetterberg on 05/05/09 at 09:02 AM ET
That’s quite a list of complaints you have there—sort of ironic to call Carlyle a whiner on top of it.
Posted by Earl Sleek from Anaheim, CA on 05/05/09 at 09:27 AM ET
Earl, Earl, Earl….my comments aren’t complaints, they’re highly objective, darn near clinical, 100% accurate observations. If, however, you insist on looking at them negatively, I’d like to point out that unlike Mr. Carlyle, at least I don’t expect to be paid for my whining (donations would be welcome, though). 
BTW, in my haste to bash the Ducks, I forgot to comment on Mike’s excellent post.
Excellent post, Mike.
Posted by YzermanZetterberg on 05/05/09 at 10:37 AM ET
Add a Comment
Please limit embedded image or media size to 575 pixels wide.
Add your own avatar by joining Kukla's Korner, or logging in and uploading one in your member control panel.
Captchas bug you? Join KK or log in and you won't have to bother.
Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.
Most Recent Blog Posts
Intent To Blow vs. In The Crease
What Do You Expect From A Rookie Season?
About Kukla’s Korner
Kukla’s Korner is updated around the clock with the work of our own talented bloggers, plus links to the best hockey writing around the internet. We strive to bring you all the breaking hockey news as it happens.
The home page allows you to see the latest postings from every blog on the site. Subscribe here. For general inquiries and more, please contact us anytime.
Get the top online sports betting bonuses available to sports betters!
When learning from experts it’s best to learn personally from them, or from their blog. We can provide that with poker lessons blog, your home to learn poker personally.
Do you get shocked from the luck in the game of poker? Stop getting shocked and start being a Poker Shoker.
As well as reading about hockey games, you can also find info about poker like which poker sites accept American Express or which are the best Canadian poker sites and also find the top rakeback sites at rakeback.net.
Kukla’s Korner is always a free service for readers, but it costs some money to maintain. If you’re ever in a position to donate a few dollars to help out, we’d be very appreciative.
Always amusing to go back to this once the playoffs start; it’s Stephen Walkom talking about how the rules will be enforced this season:
http://www.kuklaskorner.com/index.php/hockey/comments/talking_rules/
Posted by squirtholio on 05/04/09 at 04:49 PM ET