Faceoff Barriers In Hockey Essay
If you’ve watched an NHL preseason game this month, you’ve surely seen it play out already. Everyone lines up in their usual places for the faceoff, and it seems like all is going quite normally, then the referee blows his whistle.
Faceoff violation.
It’s part of a league-wide crackdown on faceoff and slashing rules that the NHL doesn’t believe were enforced properly over the years. Now in the preseason, officials are trying to lay down the law in games loaded with penalties as players struggle to adjust to the new standard.
The faceoff change has elicited largely negative responses across the hockey world. The league’s goal here makes sense — it wants the rules enforced more effectively than before — but the implementation has been questionable. Pacing of games has been …show more content…
The league says the changes in enforcement are about safety and altering the dynamic of games. When talking about disciplining players, new Department of Player Safety head George Parros said the league is “going to try to change player behavior."
Making the game safer and better enforcement of the rulebook are worthy goals, but it’s fair to wonder about what the preseason crackdown even means once the real games begin.
Will the NHL keep aggressively calling faceoff violations during the regular season? That seems unclear.
And for the teams, the lack of 5-on-5 time during preseason as a result of the deluge of penalties has limited opportunities for evaluation. Teams are trying to figure out who should make their rosters, but large chunks of their preseason games are being played at 5-on-3 or 5-on-4. It’s a difficult way to get a feel for everyone when you’re constantly jumping between the penalty kill and the power play.
So it’s not hard to see where the players and fans come from with their frustration as to how the NHL handled this. The cause may be noble and worthwhile, but so far the execution hasn’t gone
Faceoff violation.
It’s part of a league-wide crackdown on faceoff and slashing rules that the NHL doesn’t believe were enforced properly over the years. Now in the preseason, officials are trying to lay down the law in games loaded with penalties as players struggle to adjust to the new standard.
The faceoff change has elicited largely negative responses across the hockey world. The league’s goal here makes sense — it wants the rules enforced more effectively than before — but the implementation has been questionable. Pacing of games has been …show more content…
The league says the changes in enforcement are about safety and altering the dynamic of games. When talking about disciplining players, new Department of Player Safety head George Parros said the league is “going to try to change player behavior."
Making the game safer and better enforcement of the rulebook are worthy goals, but it’s fair to wonder about what the preseason crackdown even means once the real games begin.
Will the NHL keep aggressively calling faceoff violations during the regular season? That seems unclear.
And for the teams, the lack of 5-on-5 time during preseason as a result of the deluge of penalties has limited opportunities for evaluation. Teams are trying to figure out who should make their rosters, but large chunks of their preseason games are being played at 5-on-3 or 5-on-4. It’s a difficult way to get a feel for everyone when you’re constantly jumping between the penalty kill and the power play.
So it’s not hard to see where the players and fans come from with their frustration as to how the NHL handled this. The cause may be noble and worthwhile, but so far the execution hasn’t gone