Incidentally, I just Googled around and found out that average penalty minutes per player in the NHL is down from 32 minutes in 2009/10, to 22 minutes in 2016/17. It has declined in every single year since.
The site I was on didn’t go back further than 2009, but I’m willing to bet the trend has been like this since the 2004–05 lockout. After the new CBA teams started to decide that they couldn’t afford an enforcer who plays 3 minutes per game.
In front of the net, though, a defensemen can’t exactly bodycheck a screening opponent away from the crease (so that his goalie can see), and so, really the only alternative for the D is to “lovetap”* him a couple times on the back. Questionable that this practice may be, I can’t see any way around this one. If you eliminate cross-checking 100% (even anything occurring in front of the net) I’m sure you can imagine the backlash from all players on this, particularly defensemen and goalies.
*yeah yeah I’m already aware some may not be crazy about that euphemism.:rolleyes:
It’s an alternative only if you permit it.
If that means it’s harder to play defense, well, then, it’s harder to play defense. The NHL is not exactly a goal scoring paradise, is it?
I’d rather hear some whining than have player’s brains all screwed up.
I am a lifetime Pittsburgher and a big Penguin fan since Lemieux joined them back in the day. Pens forum fans are screaming for everything from Niskanen to be permanently removed from the NHL to being thrown in prison. :eek: The Caps had a player only meeting, put 7 defensemen on the ice, and deliberately took out Crosby so they could win the series… :rolleyes:
But my take on it is: it was an unfortunate circumstance where Crosby was in the wrong place at the wrong time and got hit by Ovechkin, then again by Niskanen as he was off balance. The replays all look kind of bad in super slow motion, but if you watch it at normal speed everything happened in only a few seconds, and (to me), it doesn’t look like Ovie or Niskanen really did anything out of line with normal physical playoff hitting in front of the net. Hockey is a very physical and fast paced game, and unfortunately you will see hits and injuries like that from time to time. I can’t believe that there was a period where even the goalies didn’t wear helmets and masks…
Yes, some Caps fans were assholes about it on their facebook comments and wished Crosby serious harm. I’m sure that if Ovechkin (or any other player on any other team) went through the same thing you’d see some Pens fans cheering his injury. Being an asshole is not unique to one fanbase or another. But I’ve also seen some sympathetic comments from Washington fans hoping Crosby is okay, and those are the ones that make me happy to be a hockey fan.
Crosby is definitely going to miss tonight’s game, and hopefully he’ll be able to come back after that. He had a great regular season and was firing on all cylinders during the playoffs. But long term, I’m a little worried about him and other players holding up due to their multiple head injuries. I hope that the NHL can make the game safer so these guys can hold their grandkids one day and remember who they are…
Thanks for your clear and fair analysis, RickJay. I wish you were in charge. By the way, what are the rules about going into the crease if you aren’t the goalie?
PS also clear and fair, Apocalypso. You can be in charge too.
You can be in the crease, but you can’t interfere with (contact) the goalie as he’s trying to make a save. Two minutes for goaltender interference, and if there’s a goal, it’s waived off.
kayT, the rules around creases basically cover two things:
The rules state that a goal shall be disallowed if an offensive player interferes with the goalie in his movement within the crease or ability to defend the goal in the crease, unless the contact is the result of the offensive player is checked into the goalie by a defensive player.
Note that this can be called even without contact if the offensive player is within the crease - screening the goalie is not legal if you are in the crease (even partially.) “Contact” also includes an offensive player pushing a defensive player into the goalie. Basically** any act of physically impeding a goalie from defending the goal is illegal if done in the crease. ** Outside of the crease, it is illegal only if the offensive player deliberately initiates physical contact.
If an offensive player is in the crease, but does not initiate contact with the goalie, but in trying to save a goal the GOALIE initiates contact with an offensive player in the crease and is hindered from making the save, the goal should be disallowed, but that is not a penalty play.
All goaltender interference disallows a resulting goal, but not all forms of goaltender interference in the crease result in penalties.
An offensive player who deliberately initiates actual physical contact with the goalie in the crease must always be assessed a penalty, (Rule 69.3) either minor or major, at the discretion of the referee. The rules allow for no exceptions. Of course this is not well enforced. A goal should always be disallowed if an offensive player enters the crease of his own accord and in so doing interferes with the goalie attempting to prevent the goal.
Non-physical-contact interference does not typically result in a penalty.
However - and they changed this rule, of course - there is no rule specifically forbidding an offensive player from being in the crease, only that when in the crease the player may not hinder the goalie.
Thanks for the clear explanation of how the rules have changed since I learned them.
But I wonder how often an offensive player is in the crease without impeding the goalie. Have to be a pretty little (so as not to block the goalie’s view) and gentle (like so many hockey players are) offensive player. And I wonder when/if all those rules are going to be enforced. (And I wonder how anyone can be sure if the player was pushed in or skated in.)
And I wonder why the league keeps making rules that they admit are intended to increase scoring. I personally don’t know any true hockey fans who truly enjoy a 6-3 game more than a 1-0 game.
And I will stop with the side-tracking now.
Goaltender interference is subject to video review, so the refs can usually tell after multiple replay angles whether or not a player was pushed in, or went in on his own.
“In the crease” means the presence of any part of the player’s person or equipment for any amount of time above “instant,” so if the back of one blade of your skate’s in the crease, you are in the crease. So, to answer your question, quite often.
Well, you’re got a self-answering question and a fallaciously presented No True Scotsman argument all in one paragraph there.
The answer to your first question is to increase scoring.
As to the second, I believe you are unquestionably making an unfair assumption. For one thing your example point is deliberately unfair; of course a 1-0 game may be more interesting than a 6-3 game because the former is close and the latter is not. But more interesting than a 6-5 game? I don’t think so. Did you see the 6-5 Senators-Rangers game? It was a thrill. Am I not a true hockey fan? I love hockey. I know lots and lots of lifetime hockey fans who don’t like the way the NHL has become so incredibly low-scoring.
It’s often said the best hockey games ever played were the three 1987 Canada Cup games. The score of every game was 6-5.
You’re right. A close game is fun. I guess I just object to the idea that more scoring will make the game more exciting. I also don’t think more scoring will make hockey fans out of non-hockey fans, and the league seems to think it will. Do you?
Yes.
It won’t jack attendance up 50% or anything, but it would probably slightly increase interest on the margins.
Offense is popular; it is generally true in all sports that scoring is positively correlated to attendance. Breaking records is exciting. The biggest attendance draw in the history of the sport was Wayne Gretzky, and it wasn’t for his hairstyle, it was because he scored many goals and set records. You can’t set records if you can’t score.
Why is it then that what I have been told is the most popular sport world-wide is soccer, where the score is often 1-0?
ETA I didn’t mean that to sound so snippy; I really do wonder that.
I have a feeling it’s familiarity due to the extremely low requirements for a pickup game.
Soccer: a ball, a field, a friend (the net is really optional, you can play “between those trees is the goal”)
Baseball also does well since it needs a ball and a stick, and something for bases.
Hockey needs ice, skates, a puck, and sticks, which are not common in Latin America, Africa, and lots of Asia.
One of the most popular games in the world is cricket, in which hundreds of runs are scored.
Soccer is popular largely because it’s simplistic and cheap. Hockey is harder to play.
Could be the first time since 2009 that I didn’t attend any playoff games of the ones in DC. A combination of family obligations and gallbladder surgery have kept me away.
The Pens-Caps series has been interesting. Except for the game 2 blowout, any of the others could have been different with just a couple of bounces going the other way.
Caps winning the series is obviously looking unlikely but having two of the potential three in DC helps.
So the Canada Czech Republic game is on TV right now. For a split second I thought the game was being played in Brooklyn because of the car in the corner 
It’s possible Crosby and Sheary will be back tomorrow night.
No, that would’ve been Jaromir Jagr. 
Somebody tell me, was Anaheim’s comeback tonight just about the most amazing in Stanley Cup hockey?
I have no dog in the fight.
I see it as a play-off choking worse than the infamous 2013 Maple Leafs/Bruins
game. True, the Oilers didn’t get eliminated like the Leafs did in their game, but the quick comeback time frame - three minutes and change left, In The Game - brutal.
There’s been yappings about this game’s goalie interference - maybe one or two were borderline. This has been an issue in the play-offs, such as with the Perry (also borderline) interference in the previous game.