Quote:
Originally Posted by Erick Estrada
Officials simply aren't calling penalties anymore relative to past history. Last season only 3.11 PP's per game compared to 5.84 in 2005/06. More telling is that in the clutch and grab days of the late 90's the average PP's per game was always over 4.
I can't be the only person that remembers the Flames playing a stretch of games where they didn't even get a single minor penalty called against them and wondered how that could happen. I get that they were playing more disciplined but it's hard to imagine through multiple 60 minute games not one infraction was committed. I really dislike the NHL officiating culture of "putting their whistle's in their pockets" as a penalty is a penalty regardless of how or when it happens and the NHL is the only league that operates on a principle that in overtime or close games that officials change how they officiate and let things go.
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The difference though is the playing style has changed. There's less booking and holding than before, ergo, less penalties.