Old Days - Penalties on Decline
Does it seem like the NHL is drifting back to the old days when prior to the lockout, hooking and holding penalty calls were few and far between? Your perception is correct. James Mirtle, with help from “Behind the Net” put together some interesting penalty stats in this recent report. If you look at this first chart, you can see that total hooking penalties called went from about 1600 in 2003-04, (pre-lockout), to over 4500 in 2005-06, the first year after the lockout. That number declined to about 3500 last year and is currently on pace to finish at less than 3000 this year. That’s over a 30% decrease. Other obstruction related penalties like holding and tripping, declined as well.
What’s even more alarming is that according to this chart, fewer total penalties are being called per game this year, than in any year up to 5 years prior to the lockout. What happened to the new NHL? What happened to allowing the speed and skill of the players to flourish? Instead of evolving, we are watching the league revert to it’s previous ways, right before our eyes. No wonder the successful teams in the league are beefing up like Anaheim did in 2007, rather than slimming down like Carolina did 2006. Hopefully, the refs don’t go to swallowing their whistles altogether.
Speaking of refs and fewer penalties being called, it seems to me that might be a good reason to ask for the league to go back to having just one ref on the ice. At least there should be more consistency in the calls. We wonder why the players are confused as to what is a penalty, and what isn’t? Mirtle also aptly points out the rise in diving calls, as some players probably feel the need to fall when they are being hooked, to make sure they get a call. If refs would be more consistent, players might not feel the need to take a dive. Interesting report!
In other brief news, Ottawa’s Ray Emery is at it again. The Sens backup goalie, (behind ex-Cane Martin Gerber) has been in and out of trouble all year for various reasons. He was late for practice again earlier this week, and was fined one day’s salary of about $14,700. He overslept and missed a practice about a month ago. It’s been reported that Emery has requested a trade, but who wants this locker-room cancer? Good luck in dumping that 2.75 million dollar salary this year as well as his 3.5 million guaranteed for next! Besides the fact that he’s not as good as he thinks he is. If I was a GM, I would say, thanks but no thanks.
Just one last word about the article that Ken Campbell from the Hockey News posted which kind of dragged the Hurricanes media staff through the mud. Mike Sundheim of the Canes posted his side of the story, and as I speculated he had valid reasons for ending all interviews when he did. The Hockey News retracted most of the original story and hopefully all’s well that ends well with that. Maybe Ray Whitney would prefer to give Canes Country the exclusive rights to the “Funniest Man in Hockey” story!
The Maple Leafs are in town to take on the Canes tonight and I’ll have my normal pre-game hype up after lunch. Ciao!
Chicago
About the Author: Bubba is a hockey fan/citizen journalist who has always wanted to be a sportswriter and is pursuing his dream. He also writes a Hurricanes blog for 
John | Jan 31, 2008 | Reply
You can’t really say that the decline in penalty minutes is due to lax officiating. It only makes sense that the year after the lockout we would see a huge number of minutes as players adjusted to the calls on the ice and out of their old habits.
A perfect example might be that goal by Rick Nash a few weeks ago. He wasn’t hooked once (maybe he should have been), but it was likely because the Coyotes both 1) knew that they’d be called on it and 2) don’t have that same instant reaction to hook that NHL players used to. Neither one of those aspects would have been the case in 05-06.
To prove that officiating is “reverting” to pre-lockout standards, it would take much more. You can certainly prove that there are less penalties, and that will turn out to mean less goals (as there are less power play opportunities), but it doesn’t mean that players aren’t simply avoiding the “new” penalties they may have taken in the past couple years.
Bubba | Jan 31, 2008 | Reply
I guess that I can’t argue your point John. It does make sense that players would adjust to the calls and play a cleaner game, but it also seems to me like there has been more holding and hooking lately with fewer calls. For instance, every time the Canes play against Florida. It’s not as bad as the pre-lockout days obviouly, but it seems worse than the past couple of years. That could just be my perception though. Maybe this would be a good topic for another poll.
John | Jan 31, 2008 | Reply
Actually… I’ll agree with you on a lot of your points, haha.
I do think they are calling interference much lighter than they have in the past. I do think a bit more is being let go on the ice. I can’t say that I think the discrepancy is as large as the numbers suggest, though, and I would say that most of the change is due to the adaptation of players and teams to the new rules.
A poll wouldn’t be bad…