Quote:
Originally Posted by Weitz
People always say they love playoff hockey.. I was never really one of them, its a different game than the regular season. Thats why you see the upsets in the playoffs. The league loves it probably but I don't.
I always say the NHL is the only league in the world that changes the rules in the playoffs. And while officiating is poor in pretty much all sports only in the NHL would I say it actively changes in the playoffs.
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Totally agree.
I didn't like it when Ferland was charging/interfering players with late hits in 2015, and I don't like it now. The standard changes too drastically.
HOWEVER, it's a completely and utterly predictable change as it happens every single year. Gaudreau should know this by now this isn't his first rodeo. It seemed like he tried to engage physically in game 1, got pushed around a bit, and then now he just won't do anything. My opinion is that not preparing for this completely predictable shift is the main issue.
The main way to win in the playoffs is to commit so many penalties that the refs cannot possibly call them all on you in the name of game management. Any time you have a chance to impede that isn't related to a scoring chance, you do it.