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The best example of the bubble effect is "home-ice advantage" -- or lack thereof.
Every game in the bubble has a home team and a road team. The designations decide who wears what jersey, which bench they use and who has the nicer locker room. Without fans in the stands, there really isn't a traditional home-ice advantage. Favorites have talked about how the dynamics of a Game 5, for example, are completely different without a home crowd's emotional lift.
The lack of fans has also impacted the officiating, in a pretty incredible way.
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It's an established fact that many referees have shown a bias for home teams. Even last season's wacky penalty numbers were skewed against the road team, as they were going back to 2015. But in the bubbles, that "bias" has been reduced to just three seconds on average between the teams, which is extraordinary ... and completely frustrating.
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https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/...ed-officiating
There are some stats if you click the link.
What I’d give for a full revamp of the officiating doctrine.