NHLTIM wrote:
The calls last night were borderline ridiculous. Chaser was spot on last night.

You can remove the word borderline. This isn't hockey. It's figure skating with a puck.

NHLTIM wrote:

Beatoni12 wrote:

Terrorsenko wrote:If the games are reffed like this in the regular season it will ruin the game, there's already enough penalties called. I get wanting to cut back on slashing the hands and such to avoid injuries but this is just ridiculous. Like Chaser said at the end of the game, if they want to call it like this, they might as well just have a shootout for 60 minutes because this isn't what the game of hockey is.

People need to understand the reasoning behind it though. Listen to Yeo talk about it after the game. They're going to go extreme in pre-season to make players adjust. They should get rid of the slashes on the hand that have gotten out of control, and this is the only way to do it.

Overreacting to some preseason hockey, saying hockey is / will be ruined (which is why Chaser sounded like an idiot last night) is ridiculous. This has been done before, and players will adjust.

The calls last night were borderline ridiculous. Chaser was spot on last night.

I see the "new" slashing and face-off violation rules as just a couple of more subjective penalties that can be used to influence the outcome of a game. Real slashing has always been an infraction, but not the kind of crap that we watched last night.

So obviously the amount of slashing and faceoff violation penalties being called so far this preseason is ridiculous but I think it's fair to assume this is an extreme example so far and not how the games will be called in the regular season. What is interesting to not however is that the average amount of power plays per team across the course of a season is about 100 PPs lower than it was before the 04-05 lockout. In the seasons right before the lockout, teams averaged about 350 PPs per year. After a huge spike following the post-lockout rules, the number has dropped to around 250 per year.

For all the outcry over lack of scoring, increasing the focus on slashing, obviously not to the degree we've seen so far this preseason, might be a good way to increase scoring. Not only will it provide more PPs, but if defenders slash less, it will give the skilled players more opportunity to make plays. Food for thought.

NHLTIM wrote:

Beatoni12 wrote:

Terrorsenko wrote:If the games are reffed like this in the regular season it will ruin the game, there's already enough penalties called. I get wanting to cut back on slashing the hands and such to avoid injuries but this is just ridiculous. Like Chaser said at the end of the game, if they want to call it like this, they might as well just have a shootout for 60 minutes because this isn't what the game of hockey is.

People need to understand the reasoning behind it though. Listen to Yeo talk about it after the game. They're going to go extreme in pre-season to make players adjust. They should get rid of the slashes on the hand that have gotten out of control, and this is the only way to do it.

Overreacting to some preseason hockey, saying hockey is / will be ruined (which is why Chaser sounded like an idiot last night) is ridiculous. This has been done before, and players will adjust.

The calls last night were borderline ridiculous. Chaser was spot on last night.

Some of them were, yes, but Chaser should be smart enough to understand why they're calling it like this in the preseason.

Fully agree on the stuff on the pants, but why would anyone want to allow any slashes to the hands. Those should be called. People / players / announcers need to suck it up for a few weeks and players will adjust and largely stop doing it.

We want skilled players like Fabbri and Kyrou to be able to showcase their skill without getting fingers broken.

Dave's a mess wrote:So obviously the amount of slashing and faceoff violation penalties being called so far this preseason is ridiculous but I think it's fair to assume this is an extreme example so far and not how the games will be called in the regular season. What is interesting to not however is that the average amount of power plays per team across the course of a season is about 100 PPs lower than it was before the 04-05 lockout. In the seasons right before the lockout, teams averaged about 350 PPs per year. After a huge spike following the post-lockout rules, the number has dropped to around 250 per year.

For all the outcry over lack of scoring, increasing the focus on slashing, obviously not to the degree we've seen so far this preseason, might be a good way to increase scoring. Not only will it provide more PPs, but if defenders slash less, it will give the skilled players more opportunity to make plays. Food for thought.

Exactly.

Dave's a mess wrote:So obviously the amount of slashing and faceoff violation penalties being called so far this preseason is ridiculous but I think it's fair to assume this is an extreme example so far and not how the games will be called in the regular season.

So what's the point? They've softened the game enough with the rule changes and have essentially all but eliminated fighting. You can't artificially inflate PP time for this kind of BS.

BillP wrote:

Dave's a mess wrote:So obviously the amount of slashing and faceoff violation penalties being called so far this preseason is ridiculous but I think it's fair to assume this is an extreme example so far and not how the games will be called in the regular season.

So what's the point? They've softened the game enough with the rule changes and have essentially all but eliminated fighting. You can't artificially inflate PP time for this kind of BS.

Haha, the rest of what I wrote was the point. Also it should be noted they haven't changed any rules.

Easy fix for the face-off problem... linesman places the puck in the center of the dot, both face-off participants must have their sticks on the ice outside of the dot. When everyone on the ice is in position, head ref blows his whistle to start play. Those players taking the draw, have to play the puck, prior to making contact with their opponent. If either face-off participant takes out his opponent without playing the puck first, its an obstruction penalty. If anyone moves prior to the whistle, they get two for delay of game. No more puck dropped unfairly, or the stuff we watched last night where the linesman baited the trap by faking the drop of the puck.

I'll always love a 2 handed slash on Toews, Kane, Keith, and countless others.

I don't think this will increase the amount of goals scored as much as the NHL thinks. I see it will really only increasing scoring a little bit for this season until defenders will find a new way to defend against more skilled players. Just how players will adjust to the increase in slashing penalties, defenders will also adjust to defend against players like Fabbri and Kyrou. If the NHL continues on this path, the game will look like a video game, all poke checking, dekes, and one-timers. Not entertaining in my mind. Hockey is about grit as much as it is about skill and I agree with BillP that they've already softened the game enough.

I don't want an increase in penalties, the refs already affect the game too much. And how often does a player's hand get broken? They know what they're getting into, they know it's a rough sport and shit happens sometimes. Maybe if it was clearly intentional that the hands were aimed at, the NHL should hand a a suspension to the offender instead of calling every little slash. I'm not advocating for slashing the hands and in fact, I think it should be called every time it occurs, but what we saw last night was disgusting and to quote another poster was more like figure skating with a puck than it was hockey. JMO.

Dave's a mess wrote:So obviously the amount of slashing and faceoff violation penalties being called so far this preseason is ridiculous but I think it's fair to assume this is an extreme example so far and not how the games will be called in the regular season. What is interesting to not however is that the average amount of power plays per team across the course of a season is about 100 PPs lower than it was before the 04-05 lockout. In the seasons right before the lockout, teams averaged about 350 PPs per year. After a huge spike following the post-lockout rules, the number has dropped to around 250 per year.

For all the outcry over lack of scoring, increasing the focus on slashing, obviously not to the degree we've seen so far this preseason, might be a good way to increase scoring. Not only will it provide more PPs, but if defenders slash less, it will give the skilled players more opportunity to make plays. Food for thought.

Not the way to increase scoring. I have no interest in watching special team hockey. It takes the flow, hitting, and action out of the game. It’s terrible hockey.

Dread_Pirate_Westley wrote:

Dave's a mess wrote:So obviously the amount of slashing and faceoff violation penalties being called so far this preseason is ridiculous but I think it's fair to assume this is an extreme example so far and not how the games will be called in the regular season. What is interesting to not however is that the average amount of power plays per team across the course of a season is about 100 PPs lower than it was before the 04-05 lockout. In the seasons right before the lockout, teams averaged about 350 PPs per year. After a huge spike following the post-lockout rules, the number has dropped to around 250 per year.

For all the outcry over lack of scoring, increasing the focus on slashing, obviously not to the degree we've seen so far this preseason, might be a good way to increase scoring. Not only will it provide more PPs, but if defenders slash less, it will give the skilled players more opportunity to make plays. Food for thought.

Not the way to increase scoring. I have no interest in watching special team hockey. It takes the flow, hitting, and action out of the game. It’s terrible hockey.

While I don't hate special team hockey as much as you, 5 on 5 hockey is definitely preferable. If you can have 5 on 5 with less slashing though, that's potentially more appealing as it lets the skill guys work with less impediment. Now will this work? Probably not to any significant degree, but I get it.

If you want to increase scoring, I'm an advocate of shrinking the goalie equipment, but the league can't seem to get its act together on that one.

As usual, the league has it all backwards with these slashing calls. They're calling them on every occasion a stick contacts a players hands (and even when it doesn't it appears) in the pre-season so that the players will "adjust" in the regular season. Well, if the officials called it properly in the prior regular season and didn't "let things go" for whatever reason, there would be no need to force the players to adjust their behavior. Making the proper calls when it counts would have already done that.

Then again, I do agree with Tim that any 2 handed slashes to the hands of Toews, Kane and Keith should still be allowed.

MissouriMook wrote:As usual, the league has it all backwards with these slashing calls. They're calling them on every occasion a stick contacts a players hands (and even when it doesn't it appears) in the pre-season so that the players will "adjust" in the regular season. Well, if the officials called it properly in the prior regular season and didn't "let things go" for whatever reason, there would be no need to force the players to adjust their behavior. Making the proper calls when it counts would have already done that.

Then again, I do agree with Tim that any 2 handed slashes to the hands of Toews, Kane and Keith should still be allowed.

100% agree with this.

You know it sucks when it’s pre-season, hockey is back, and the main topic is penalties.

I think a big part of the problem is these new sticks. Guys like Pronger and Chelios used to slash an opponents stick, legally, almost as an art form, as a means to defend successfully. Then all of the sudden these new composite sticks come into play and the stick breaks every time sometime breathes on it too heavy. The result is the refs started calling these broken sticks a slash. The players respond by slashing higher up on the stick to avoid breaking it, and now all of the sudden it's a problem because guys are getting hit in the hands all the time. I wish the NHL would do like MLB and only allow wooden stick (bats). Let the composites be used in amateur hockey.

The good news is that the league always has these "points of emphasis" with some penalty every preseason and then during the regular season it practically goes away and back to normal. One year it was interference. They were calling it ridiculously, you basically couldn't touch a player who was going after a puck that was dumped in until they got to the puck. It didn't end up being called like that in the regular season. I expect the same for all this slashing stuff.

Sneptsmoustache wrote:Alright people...the PMs I've sent are stuck in my outbox for some reason...

messages stay in your outbox until the other member reads them.

NHLTIM wrote:I'll always love a 2 handed slash on Toews, Kane, Keith, and countless others.

some things are just worth the penalty.

thanks for the write-ups everyone, i was stuck on the road in meetings and didn't get to see it. as for all the calls, it's preseason - the officials have to try stuff to see what works, too. not worried.

MissouriMook wrote:... Then again, I do agree with Tim that any 2 handed slashes to the hands of Toews, Kane and Keith should still be allowed.

Heck, those infractions should result in a 5-minute power play for the hatchet man's team.