![]() ![]() If one cross-check isn’t worthy of a call with two minutes left, then don’t call it at the start of the first period either. You can let the players play while remaining consistent throughout the contest. Letting The Players Play, With Consistency Though if ‘game management’ made way for consistency in the calling, most players wouldn’t complain. The disclaimer here is that I am not on some kind of crusade for playoff-style hockey all year round. It is all part of the glorious theatre of hockey and undeniably when the sport reaches its zenith. It injects speed into the game flow and forces chaotic line changes as mistakes creep in and systems break down. Most people prefer watching two teams exchange high-end scoring chances, flying from one end to the other with fewer stoppages. But why does it have to be this way?Īfter all, the unspoken slogan for playoff games, in particular, is “let the players play”, which is fine in principle. A popular stance on the subject is that if the league started calling penalties on merit it would cause a procession of stoppages, killing any flow in the game. Yet there are those that vehemently defend game management. Post-Tim Peel: An Alternative Way of Officiating? Ironically, in doing so, the NHL has created this game management backlash themselves. The league does not want to make a referee’s decision the centre of attention. It is the reason why penalties are shared out and why in higher stakes games, like in the playoffs, the calls are less frequent. Ultimately it is the NHL, who lays down the ground rules on what they expect from their referees and how they want games to be officiated. In fact, the hot-mic incident speaks more to the systemic attitude of the league that deploys these officials. Tim Peel and Referees To Blame?ĭoes the blame for this trend fall entirely on Tim Peel and by extension referees, in general? Not at all. What we are seeing is that the relationship in this table proves there is a degree of truth behind make-up calls and how referees tend to even up the penalties between two teams throughout the contest. Why? Because the referees manage games more than they officiate them. Naturally, there are some outliers but the overall trend indicates that teams nearly equal out time on the powerplay and penalty kill. Put simply, the more penalties one team draws, the more it tends to concede. As you can see, there is a clear diagonal line of best fit which exhibits a positive linear relationship between penalties awarded and conceded. The table above, produced by Money Puck, shows the average number of penalty minutes taken and drawn by each team. This practice eliminates significant disparity between team’s penalty totals which would be considered controversial, especially if it became the main factor behind the final result. ![]() They happen on a nightly basis and are a way of ensuring that all teams get their “fair share” of penalties. ![]() It is important to state, however, that make-up calls are not a new phenomenon. As the ‘Locked on Predators’ podcast co-host Matt Best tweeted, the referee clearly altered the way he officiated in order to counter-balance the call made from before. What is so infuriating about this moment is that there is a clear understanding during this conversation that a “set-the-record-straight” call is an acceptable practice. ![]() In other words, he was looking to award Detroit with a powerplay in order to level the playing field at one penalty apiece for each team. The idea behind Peel’s reasoning was that he wanted to enforce a make-up call against the Predators since they had already scored a powerplay goal in the first period. ![]()
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