Quote:
Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague
I never really got a straight answer as to why they abandoned this. After Bettman Lockout II, they came back and said, "okay, we're going to start calling penalties. All the penalties. We'll start slow and just ramp up on the hooking, holding and interference sort of penalties, but you're all on notice, because the rulebook now matters." Power plays went up, but so did even strength scoring, because people didn't want to take penalties.
That lasted about 18 months.
Why is this so difficult? The league pays officials, presumably it can tell them how to do their jobs. There are two of them on the ice. If they just don't see the penalty, that's one thing, but if they see it but don't call it because "game management" or some such nonsense, well, #### right off.
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This is what I don't get either. For awhile after the lockout (s?) they were calling a crap ton of penalties, literally calling everything by the book it seemed. It seemed like a continual parade to the penalty box and games were taking longer to play. If I had to guess I was think the teams and league felt this was not good either and allowed/instructed the officials to back off a little on the calls. If they went back to actually enforcing the rules then yes there would be a lot of penalties (initially) but over time I think it would come down as players adjusted to it. And hey you never know, maybe the slashes, spears, elbows, head shots etc. might actually be reduced as well. I'd love to see the league tighten up the calls.
Was Crosby's slash dirty? Probably not, but it was definately a penalty and should have been called. Same with all the ones on Gaudreau when he had his fingers broken. Just call the damn rules already.