Bettman all but confirmed the officials were guided by the league, to enforce the rules this playoffs much tighter. He said “there is no regular season penalty, and playoff penalty, it’s a penaty, and we spoke to our officials about being consistent”
Which sounds fair until you pick apart his lawyer speak. Fans don’t want different rules for playoffs, they want a higher bar of certainty. Which isn’t what has happened. Refs are calling ticky tack all over and offsetting penalties frequently.
What I think the truth is that the league put indirect pressure on refs to call penalties to make the game more exciting. They want to see more goals from McDavid, McKinnon, and
Matthews. Its meant to better marketing getting highlights out there to casual fans to watch.
Bottom line this slants tables to teams that chose to build around 1 or 2 PP stars and are weak otherwise vs teams that are structured and balanced.
I don’t blame a guy like Sutter who is a stalwart of the game for watching the NHL marketing department bend the game over and “compromise” it in front of him.
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