Let's Talk About The NHL's New Faceoff Violations, Shall We?
If you’ve checked out any preseason NHL action so far the past week or so, the one thing you’ll notice is that the games take for-fucking-ever. Why? Because there have been about a thousand slashing penalties called per game and I don’t think there’s been a single faceoff yet where somebody hasn’t been tossed from the dot. These are two of the biggest things under the microscope this year for NHL officials. Being stricter on slashes so we don’t have any more Johnny Gaudreau situations on our hands (no pun intended) like we did last year. And being stricter on faceoff violations, probably since friend of the program Logan Couture complained about Sidney Crosby cheating a couple playoffs ago.
So let’s talk about the violations real quick because as you’d expect, everybody hates them right now. Especially Brad Marchand.
Let’s get right to the source of all the confusion right away and start with the rule itself.
Here is rule 76.4 straight from the NHL Rule Book.
When the face-off takes place at any of the nine face-off spots, the players taking part shall take their position so that they will stand squarely facing their opponent’s end of the rink, and clear of the ice markings (where applicable). The sticks of both players facing-off shall have the blade on the ice, within the designated white area. At the eight face-off spots (excluding center ice face-off spot), the defending player shall place his stick within the designated white area first followed immediately by the attacking player. When the face-off is conducted at the center ice face-off spot, the visiting player shall place his stick on the ice first. If a player facing-off fails to take his proper position immediately when directed by the official, the official may order him replaced for that face-off by any teammate then on the ice.
I don’t think any of this is new. It’s been the rule for a few seasons now that the defending player has to put his stick down first. The reasoning being the NHL wants to add more scoring and more offense. So making the defensive center put his stick down first gives the attacking center more of an advantage. Also–you always had to keep your skates inside of the L’s and square up for the faceoff. That’s the reason they’re painted on the ice to begin with. It’s just that guys who have been around long enough 1) get a free pass to do whatever they want from the refs and 2) have found ways to position themselves that bend those rules a little bit. But again, none of these rules are new. They’re just enforcing them more strictly now. Like take for instance this Kerby Rychel violation.
Listen. I hate rules just as much as the next guy. But they clearly say the defending centerman has to put his stick down in the white first. Rychel didn’t do that. And since Greening already got tossed from that faceoff and it was their 2nd violation, they get slapped with a bench minor. Again, there is nothing new about that rule. It’s been around for a while. It’s just that teams rarely ever have 2 violations on the same faceoff because linesman would never dare to call them.
So now here’s the thing. Everybody hates the new crackdown on face off violations but none of this is new. Just the way they’re calling it. So who are you supposed to be mad at? That’s obviously the most important question here because we need to be mad at somebody. Do we get mad at the officials because they’re doing their job? Are we supposed to get mad at the players for still not knowing how to properly take face offs? Do we get mad at the league for getting stricter on the violations? Obviously everybody gets a little bit of the blame here. It’s tough because on one hand, I love the thought process behind the rules. Give the attacking team as much of an advantage as possible. I’m all for more scoring and more offense. Like this goal from the China game today.
Kings win the faceoff back to the point. Canucks forwards have to jump up to the Kings’ D. Martinez slips down as the Canucks’ forwards jump. Puck gets kicked down to Toffoli who then hits Martinez cross ice and it’s in the back of the net. That shit is beautiful and it happens because the Kings got the advantage in the faceoff dot as the attacking team. So yeah I want more of those goals. But not if it comes at the cost of every faceoff procedure taking 50 seconds because guys keep getting tossed for violations. So here’s my proposal to the league.
1) Just get a little less strict on the faceoffs. Obviously call something if it’s blatant but let’s not break down shit to the millimeter here.
2) A team has 3 faceoff violations per period until every faceoff for the rest of that period is just awarded to the other team. With those faceoffs, everybody would lineup as they would normally but then the puck starts with the defensemen and a whistle starts the play. Pretty sure that would get guys to stop fucking up real quick and would also keep the pace of the game going instead of stopping every penalty.
Just spit balling here. But yeah, I doubt the regular season games are going to get called as much as the preseason has before. At least I hope not or else this season will be borderline unwatchable.
And yeah. I love Johnny Gaudreau more than anybody. But they gotta stop calling a slash every single time anybody gets touched above the waist with a stick. Slows the game down so much every time some flat-footed defenseman gets burned by and turns around to give a little whack. Or every time there’s a battle along the boards and someone comes out with the puck and is immediately tapped on the gloves on his way out. Those plays happen about 50 times per game and now they’re getting called every single time. It’s brutal.