Pop Quiz: what do the sharks loss to the wings, and last night’s victory against the Canucks have in common?

The losing team in both cases had back to back games with travel involved.

Does the fact that the Canucks came out with dead legs and were blown out of the building in the first five minutes mean anything in the long run?

Not really. And really, the same can be said about the Wings game. the media turned it into a big “benchmark” game, because, well, they have to have things to talk about, but in reality, the series between detroit and san jose is 1-1, both losing teams having played back to back with travel the night before. Doesn’t really prove much yet, other than there’s a good chance they’ll meet each other deep in the playoffs, and advantage to the team with home ice advantage (maybe).

Ditto the Canucks last night. The game started with the Sharks grabbing the puck and basically putting on about a four minute cycle exposition where the Canucks were lucky to get the puck out of the zone, much less get it to center ice and change (they really didn’t get it into the Sharks zone, much less control the puck). It ended as it seemed inevitable with a Sharks goal at 4:22.

It was clear from the start the Canucks simply didn’t have skating legs. they looked tired. They tried — and couldn’t. Schneider could have been better, but he got no help.

After the Sharks went up 3-0, they went into lock down mode and backed off, playing that grey area between embarassing a team by scoring a zillion goals and embarassing a team by not pretending to play. Sometimes, the Sharks get in trouble doing this and let teams back in the game, and Vancouver kinda sorta tried, but San Jose was too dominating. The shot count was really misleading — San Jose went into “find the perfect shot” mode early and worried more about killing clock than running the score.

A perfect case in point was one time when the sharks were on penalty kill and the puck turned over. Patrick Marleau pursued, and he clearly shut it down in center ice and timed his arrival to get to the puck right after the Canuck did. With Marleau’s speed, he would have easily gotten to the puck first and created at least havoc and probably a shorthanded chance with a clean show at Sanford — and chose not to, but did it in a way that wouldn’t “show up” the team or be easily noticed unless you’re in arena and watching closely. Rather class act, IMHO.

What you need to know about how unbalanced the game was: Jody Shelley getting power play time, because McLellan started rolling four lines.

How do you coach a game like this? I have this vision of McLellan behind the bench saying “boys, if you cost Nabby this shutout, we’re bag skating tomorrow”. Which sounds silly, but if you’re trying to teach a team not to let up when they’re dominating, that’s the kind of mentality you need. And last night, they did.

Last night’s game was about 10 minutes of Sharks domination, followed by 50 minutes of Vancouver “when does the plane take off?”

Not something you can use to make broad pronouncements about the Canucks or their season. And that says something about the Wings game, also, I think.

To me, the answer is simple:

“We’re not done yet”.

For all the Sharks have been rolling this season, Detroit is still the Cup Champions, and the Sharks are “simply” a team with a great start. They haven’t taken the mantle away from Detroit, and Detroit was clearly not going to hand it over that easily.

you can throw a lot of things in the mix: 2nd game in back to backs on the road, injured players (effectively skating a full line that a month ago was in Worcester), etc, etc. Bottom line: Sharks didn’t play well early, Nabokov gave up a couple of soft goals early, and the team let tired legs take control of the game after that. Oh, and the Wings wanted to make a statement, and did.

All of which says the Sharks have more work to do if they want to get what they’re shooting for this season.

The good news is — losses like this are good, because they keep a team from getting lazy or starting to think it’s going to be easy. It gives them something to get motivated around to improve their game further, and this is the kind of team that will. I’m actually pretty happy that Detroit spanked the team — a close loss or a couple of bad bounces could be explained away, that loss requires some deep thinking and commitment to improve.

Detroit was clearly a much better team. Fortunately, it’s December, when a loss like this is a learning experience and not the end of a season. And once you get past that, you just move on. Both teams have won, at home, on the 2nd game of back to backs for the losing team. There’s a lot of hockey left to play before we really know which team is going to go further in the playoffs.

One of the teams the Sharks have played recently that really impressed me was Columbus. In the first game, which the Sharks stole, I was finding myself wondering how a team playing that well was 14th in the conference (as of tonight, they’re 11th; that’s part of the answer; they’re now playing well and moving up). but when you look at the standings, four wins separates the 15th team (St. Louis) from the 8th playoff spot. Unlike the easy, where you can presume that six or seven of the teams have already settled into the playoffs and you have four teams playing for that eighth spot, in the West, there are maybe four teams that are “safe” for the playoffs, and you have eleven teams playing for the other four spots. The hockey is that good, and the race is still that close — two or three wins or losses can shuffle the standings around in a major way.

Steve Mason has impressed the hell out of me, and as of now, is on my short list for rookie of the year. But the Bluejackets are really playing good, confident hockey right now, and they’re going to make some teams crazy along the way. Right now, they look to be one of the teams making the final eight, and more power to them.

I guess I picked a bad week to give up sniffing glue…

No, seriously, a combination of having my boss leave at the start of the month, picking up a copy of the office head cold that’s been going around, and realizing OMFGITSDECEMBER sort of distracted me from blogging about stuff for a bit.

The cold is finally receding, so I can think, work is finally setting down with the new boss and an understanding of who’s picking up what pieces, and I no longer feel like I’m going to show up for christmas dinner a week late — although I’ll be two weeks late getting the frigging christmas tree up this year. Part of me almost says “don’t bother”, but I’ll regret it if I do.

But it’s given me some time to watch everyone else talk about (and posture over) Avery and think through this thing a little bit more.

When I spoke last on Avery (damn, less than a week ago. how time flies when you’re having fun), I said:

For those wondering why he was suspended for this comment, you can’t take this in isolation. It’s not THIS comment, it’s that this is just the LATEST of a string of increasingly out of control comments. And that’s the real issue here

And I believe that’s been proven out. The suspension wasn’t really about what he said (sorry, people who want to be over-picky about the appropriateness of his comments) but that he said it. It’s come out that he’s been called to the carpet two previous times (at least) by the league, having had chewing-out sessions with both bettman and colin campbell in separate situations. Bettman told him if he stepped out of line again,he’d be suspended. He stepped out of line. He got suspended.

That’s why just looking at the situation is easy for those looking for an easy reason to complain, but life’s never that simple.

Worse, it’s clear Avery has personal issues he needs to deal with. That’s what “anger managment” is all about; it’s PC code for “you’re going to sit down with a shrink and we’re going to try to get you help”. Anger is only one aspect this could be about, but when you start reading the various things that have been popping up, the larger picture of Avery is really pretty sad (for example, try here and here )

That the team was considering waiving him BEFORE this happened is telling. So is that team members went to Jackson in the pre-season to say it wasn’t working and he was ripping up the locker room.

In some ways, I think the league did Avery a favor here. They took the action out of the Stars hands — and it was clear the Stars management was all set for a nuclear wasteland. By suspending Avery and giving him six games, he gives both Avery and the stars a chance to calm down and think it through — which just might give Avery a chance to repair some of the damage and not find himself thrown off the team permanently.

It ALSO avoids a major war with the NHLPA, at least for now. It seems the PA is willing to accept the six game suspension, but from comments made by Paul Kelly, any attempt to suspend the contract would start the fight. I don’t blame the NHLPA, either, the suspension of Avery by the league is a precedent that starts a slippery slope the PA doesn’t want players on, but it looks like the PA is willing to accept that. If the stars try to void the cointract, however, all hell will break loose.

Given how obviously pissed everyone in stars management was at this and how Avery played them all for fools, an attempt to void the contract (“damn the contracts and call the lawyers!” by Hicks was almost inevitable. Bettman and the league has stepped in and created a situation that has given all involved some time to get the tempers out of control — and honestly, I think he deserves credit for that. Not that people will give it to him.

In any event, it’s now basically up to Avery. Maybe this was the kick in the pants he needed; maybe he’ll regress. We’ll see.

If I were the Stars, I’d waive him, send him to some place in the AHL, and tell him he has to earn his way back on the team. I doubt a contract voiding would survive the NHLPA and a court fight, and no other NHL team’s going to touch him (Ray Emery has a better chance of hitting the NHL right now) — but if Avery takes his “anger management” seriously and works to prove he’s trying to solve whatever issues cause scenes like this), and he goes to the AHL and shuts his mouth and plays hard and works hard and keeps his life straight — then maybe.

Honestly, though, I doubt he will. I don’t think it’ll be that simple or the ending will be that happy. But it’s really up to Avery to make lemonade or throw the lemons at old ladies…

And ultimately, the person who most deserves an apology from him is Brett hull, who got thrown under a fleet of busses here. Hull has to explain to his owner that they wasted millions of dollars of the owner’s money on — THIS — but he still desrves to be a GM for the Stars. I find that a hard thing to believe Hicks will remember fondly in future years, you know?

And that’s really the bottom line in all of this. WHAT he said really doesn’t matter here. It’s that he DID say it, the context of when and how he said it, and his history of these kind of out of control behaviors that led to this. And honestly, six games is a lot better for him than many of the things that could have happened if the league hadn’t stepped in… The league probably did him a big favor here; one wonders if he’ll take advantage of it…

I’m guessing not.

When will the thinking begin? – From The Rink:

I have a hard time believing the NBA and NFL are going to have to cut back considerably and the NHL will escape unscathed, but at this point, that’s where we’re at in the commissioner’s eyes.

I don’t for a minute think it’s fair to interpret what they’re saying they’ll escape unscathed. Bill Daly today noted the league’s put in a hiring freeze, and in fact, Bettman said this:

“The sense is that we are doing OK this season, but there is a great deal of uncertainty about the future, particularly next season.”

“Probably a good indication for us will be how playoff ticket sales go. But while there is concern, there is also hopeful optimism.”

In reality, the business cycles for these leagues are all different phases and the leagues aren’t easily compared. In hockey, most of the revenue for the league is in for the year — the next time significant revenues come in will be in the playoffs, and Bettman clearly sees that as a bellwether for things moving forward, but right now, they know roughly what the revenue situation is going to be. They have, in fact, telegraphed their thoughts by indicating they think the cap will be roughly flat this season and they’re more or less guaranteeing it goes down the season after that.

So there’s no pretending going on in the league that they’re going to avoid this. What the reality is, though, is that the major pain won’t come until later, going into next season. There’s no reason to lay off now — and I expect they hope they’ll be able to limit future layoffs through the hiring freeze and the attrition that can be expected between the end of this season and next. But if there are layoffs, and there probably will be, expect them to happen off-season.

What happens if revenues go down next year while the cap stays flat? Less than you might think; remember one aspect of the CBA is the escrow account. In past years, the escrow money’s been sent on to players. If the revenues decline, then some (or all) of that escrow money will be held back by the owners — this scenario being the reason the escrow account was put into the CBA in the first place.

So things may potentially be ugly, but the league’s got things in place to adapt to it, at least to some degree. Players could potentialy find themselves with 10-12% pay cuts if the entire escrow account is returned to the owners next season, even if the cap stays flat. And it’ll be interesting to see how much of the escrow goes to players this season; I wouldn’t expect a 100% payout.

So the thinking has been going on for a while. What the league isn’t doing is panicing; revenues seem sustainable now and they can use other methods than layoffs to handle reduced revenue issues when they finally hit — which they probably won’t for another six months or so. And the CBA was designed to help here, and my guess is, it will.

The NHL’s rapid revnue growth the last few years also helps, because it makes the downturn somewhat easier to handle; most companies don’t hire as quickly as they grow, which reduces the need to layoff when things turn.

So to me, this is more about some journalists crying wolf than the league whistling in the graveyard. What I’m seeing is a league being very aware and proactive, and getting yelled at for things not being as negative as people seem to expect them to be.

Life could be a lot worse. A few days back, James Mirtle posted attendance numbers for the NHL, showing them down about 1%. Even given some teams like the Panthers pushing free and discounted tickets like crazy, paid attendance is likely down no more than 2-3%. Taht’s not all that bad, and from the numbers, only four teams are playing below 80% full (Atlanta, carolina, tampa, columbus), and four more below 85% (Phoenix, NY Island, New Jersey, LA). Eight teams below 85% full may seem bad, but that leaves 22 teams playing above 85% full, and frankly, when you look at the teams suffering attendance, they are also teams suffering from bad play, except for New Jersey, which is having problems filling its new building, but always seems to have fought attendance issues.

To some degree this just reinforces that winning hockey sells tickets, good markets or bad. And losing hockey just encourages fans to sit on the sideline; the bad economy just amplifies those changes.

Some fuss has been made of the cities with significant attendance drops: Tampa and Atlanta around 12% down, Carolina around 11%, Nashville, Los Angeles, Buffalo down 7% or so. Not minimizing that, but do you blame fans in Tampa and Atlanta for staying away after the off-season owner-fun (in Tampa) and the horribly disappointing season last year after finally making the playoffs and convincing fans maybe things were getting better? Or in columbus, still without a playoff series? Bad teams SHOULD suffer in attendance, or what motivation do they have to get better? (snide side glance at the Toronto fans injected here). Lost in the noise of all this are teams like Washington and Chicago, where reinvented ownership (with the hawks) and a really good, up and coming team (in washington) have gotten people excited again, with 25% and 15% increases. So it balances out; teams getting better get fans on board, teams getting worse lose them. It’s easy to focus just on the bad news, but the reality is, it’s not all bad out there.

Compare that to, say, the NBA. 30 team league, and currently, four teams are playing at 70% or below capacity, and a total of 13 teams are playing at 85% or below capacity. No wonder they’re laying off, but where the NHL has been growing since the end of the lockout, the NBA’s been struggling, and it’s showing this year. Last year, they only had 2 teams under 70% and six teams at 85% or below. Compared to those numbers, the NHL is staggeringly successful this season being down only 1-3%.

Or consider Nascar, which only a couple of years ago was being seen as one of those sports taking the NHL out behind the shed and giving it a wedgie (not without some justification, either); the current feeling seems to be that if the automaker bailout doesn’t happen, NASCAR won’t be laying off, it could well simply cease to exist.

Then there’s the KHL, which in the preseason some were thinking was going to hurt the NHL; now, a few months later, teams are missing payrolls (or barely making them) and there seems a good chance the league won’t make it to season two. How things change.

In the ECHL, we’ve seen the first franchise failure.

And over in europe, one of the major soccer leagues has come out and said it needs — well, basically, a salary cap and escrow system just like the NHL built, or it’s likely in deep trouble.

Oh, and it looks like Arena football is going to fold, period. Can’t get financing.

We tend to over-focus on the issues around the league, and some media types seem to get off predicting the worse (and we, as fans, don’t hold their feet to the fire when they prove, time and again, to be woefully inaccurate…). But when you look around the pro sports industry globally — honestly? The NHL is in for some rough times, and some of those times are going to be painful — but in the larger context of other leagues, it seems like it’s done what it can to minimize the pain, before it had to do so in panic mode. So now that those bad times are here, surprise, the league isn’t panicing. And some folks seem to see that as a bad thing…

This isn’t so much an essay on Avery and the suspension as some random thoughts and reactions. If you aren’t sure what I’m talking about check out Puck Stops here; it’s one of the more reasoned views of the situation:

KuklasKorner : The Puck Stops Here : The Sean Avery Suspension:

I support the idea of trash talk. I think it is a useful way for players to agitate opponents. Avery said something that would likely upset one of the best players on the Calgary Flames (Dion Phaneuf) who he was about to play and he managed to do it by saying something that was clean enough for national TV. That is an accomplishment. He had to hit Phaneuf with something personal to do this. It seemed to me like a rather minor incident. It was something that might be played in the broadcast of the Dallas at Calgary game that night and soon be forgotten (it is possible some larger incident may come during the game which would keep it in the news – but most likely it would be soon forgotten).

The NHL had other plans. They suspended Avery for his comments. A large number of fans applauded – many on the logic that they hat Sean Avery and suspending him for any reason is a good thing. The problem is this reason for his suspension is a weak one. It’s not the worst off ice thing that Avery has done. He has given a camera man in New York the middle finger and had off-color verbal comments about Darcy Tucker and Jason Blake.

Avery was suspended because he is Sean Avery. Had another player been in his position, there would likely have been no suspension. The league is looking to suspend Sean Avery. If this becomes a precedent for further suspensions for pre-game trash talk, that will lead to more suspensions for relatively minor offences. If there are no further suspensions for pre-game comments, then it shows that Avery is being unfairly treated as he is being punished when others in the same situation would not be.

On the “pro suspension” side is James Mirtle, while Puck Daddy falls more on the “what do you expect from people who need help dressing” view of the NHL (here and here).

My view on this situation is frankly mixed; Avery definitely stepped over a line and needed to be bitchslapped, especially after it came out that he was told by his team explicitly told him not to speak to the press, and Avery ignored that order and stepped into someone else’s scrum and effectively cherrybombed the press and then ran. That the Stars have come out and said they would have suspended him is a good sign. I personally would have preferred that it be a team suspension to a league one, by having the League step in I think they’re opening up a Pandora’s box they may regret.

On the other hand, that’s classic Avery: agitate until the other side loses its cool and reacts without thinking it through. In some ways, he just did that to the league instead of an opposition player. The league will have to deal with the side effects later. At the Sharks game last night, Laurie and I were talking about this, and I said “I really wish I was on the call between Bettman, Daly and Colin Campbell where Bettman asked them to find a rule that allowed him to kick Avery in the balls” — and basically, that’s what the league did.

I have no sympathy for Avery here. He asked for it. He deserves it. Whether this was the best way to handle it, we’ll see.

For those wondering why he was suspended for this comment, you can’t take this in isolation. It’s not THIS comment, it’s that this is just the LATEST of a string of increasingly out of control comments. And that’s the real issue here:

Avery is out of control. Anyone remember Ray Emery? Well, here’s this year’s model. Except Avery decided, among other things, to directly attack the league and league management as part of his “me first, I’m smarter than all of you” game.

There are some folks upset that the league didn’t allow Avery to play last night and give Phaneuf and the Flames a chance to, well, educate him as to the intelligence of his comments. I sympathize with them. In reality, though, imagine the scenario where Avery declines and turtles (not that Avery ever turtles. nope. not him) and others get involved. the NHL’s worst nightmare here would be someone like Mike Modano out with a torn ACL because the Flames tried to rearrange Avery’s face in a game. No, their worst nightmare would be another Steve Moore episode, and that’s not reaching very far given the heated tempers here, folks. So I don’t for a second blame the league for stepping in, this powderkeg had “disaster” written on it in a number of different ways.

By the way, people should really sit back and ask themselves Who Is the Victim? Another question people should ask themselves is where are the limits set?

Elisha Cuthbert got dragged through the mud here. What about her and her feelings? Shouldn’t the league have some standards here? Shift the scenario a bit: imagine that Sean Avery had said equally derogative things about, oh, Mike Grier. you really think people would be upset about a suspension over a racial slur? (well, some would, but they’d be a lot quieter and circumspect). So why would a racial slur be unacceptable, but a gender slur is? Draw a line in the sand, where do you put it? Blacks? European players? Quebec French? But not women? the league has made it clear, and suspended players, for slurs against the first three, on and off ice.

The guys out there who think it’s amusing that he did this to her, well, stop and think about it a bit. If you can. Or ask someone like Donald Brashear or Mike Grier. I bet that they have an opinion — and a fair bit of sympathy for her.

By the way, if Avery’d done this on ice, during a game, or privately in a hallway, that’s fine. Dirty play and dirty language is part of the game and his schtick, and that’s between him and the players. But jump into a scrum of reporters, grab a mike and put on a show? Hey, at that point, you are a representative of yourself, your team, and the league, and you have responsibilities to all of them to act professionally. Instead, he stood up and played the fool and proved that what was important was him.

And that’s why he’s poison; he threw his team under the bus, he threw the league under the bus, and it’s not the first time he’s done both. And for a game which prides itself on winning and competing as teams, it’s one thing to be an individual (this league is rife with them), but another to start declaring yourself more important than either. It’s been clear from his statements for a while that Avery sees the WWE as the model for how the NHL ought to operate. I think the league needs to suggest to Avery he go join the WWE; where it’s not really about winning, but about individuals and celebrity.

Oh, and speaking of people Avery’s thrown under the bus, how will you all feel when Brett Hull gets fired over this? Because I think there’s a strong chance that’ll happen: Hull championed him onto the team, Hull backed him and supported him. And now this. But then, everyone else is just support staff there to make life better for Avery. Hull’s probably learned a nasty lesson in learning in who he places his trust and loyalty with. Some friend, that Sean Avery.

A Strategic Suspension of Avery? | The Business of Sports:

According to the old cliche, “there’s no such thing as bad publicity.” There is definitely some truth to this statement. A player makes some public mistake and the media covers every detail of that team and league. It might not be the best publicity, but there is no question that your teams will get a lot of additional media exposure.

There’s good publicity, there’s no publicity, and there’s bad publicity. But not all bad publicity is created equal. Some bad publicity can be used for future benefit. Some is simply destructive. All the Avery thing has done is give people who love to bash the league more stuff to bash the league with. You tell me: how do you take the publicity caused by Avery and use it to convince non-fans the league is something they might want to check out? Banner ads on the WWE websites?

No, sometimes no publicity is much better for you than this kind of publicity. There’s nothing here that you can spin or leverage to get people to become interested in the league. It makes the league look like a bunch of jerks. Avery is doing nobody favors here, not even himself.

I’ll close with what Brett Hull said, because it’s both indicative of what hockey tries to be (and mostly is), and just how unimportant those aspects of the game were to Avery. Ultimately, that’s Avery’s key failure here: in a game where individuals give themselves to the success of the team, Avery merely saw the team and all around him as tools for personal self-gain.

DALLAS STARS Blog | The Dallas Morning News:

“This goes beyond hockey and beyond the game on the ice, and that’s what bothers me,” Hull said. “We have talked and talked and talked about being on the edge within the game, but not going over the line. We told him from the start that he can not do things that would embarrass the organization. Ever since the start here, this organization has been built on class, and there is a responsibility to the organization, to the owner and his family, and to the city and the fans to maintain that class. Play hard, push the game on the ice, but do not embarrass the organization.”

And yesterday, the league finally told him they were tired of being a tool. And of him.

One wonders if he’ll actually listen. I doubt it. I wonder if he CAN.

Oh, and let’s put this all in perspective. How? Well, perhaps by reading this piece by goaliegirl…..

San Jose Sharks – News: 43 Points In 25 Games – 12/03/2008:

Behind a brilliant four-point first period from Joe Thornton, San Jose exploded to a 4-0 lead on the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs, defeated their old coach, and most importantly, posted their 43rd point in 25 games, tying the 1943-44 Montreal Canadiens for the best start in NHL history. The victory was the Sharks eighth in a row.

Fun game last night. The Sharks basically spanked the Leafs early and put it in autopilot. The two goals came about mostly because the Sharks mentally went and took their showers early. It really was man vs. boy for a lot of the game. At times in the past, the Sharks have struggled with managing leads, last night, they very much played a “red wings” style run out the clock game.

That was kinda my point in my posting last night. The Leafs scored mostly because the Sharks didn’t really care if they did, and the few Leafs fans willing to stick around to the end (most left, the first large chunk in the 2nd period, along with the first wave of Sharks fans) really shouldn’t have seen that as a “YEAH! LEAFS RULE!” moment.

Still, a fun game. Just not really ever close. Toskala had the yips early, and that pretty much set up the show for the night.

Now, having said that…

Lots of fans and media pundits have looked at the Sharks and said “hey, it only matters what they do in the playoffs”. They’re right — and I’ve said that to some degree as well.

If you use that as an excuse to not pay attention to the Sharks during the regular season, you’re missing one hell of a hockey team. This team is rolling. In case people haven’t noticed, Joe Thornton’s on a 2 point a game pace the last 7 or 8 games (and last night? A goal and three assists. yawn. Another night in the office). This team is impressive as hell, and really making notable waves, even for a team who’s the definition of “the regular season doesn’t matter”.

It may not matter, but the Sharks are making it matter by playing this well. If you are waiting for the playoffs to watch them, you’re going to miss a lot of really good hockey….

Video: Putting the Finger on a fighting problem in NHL – Puck Daddy – NHL – Yahoo! Sports:

Now, here’s what we saw: Finger delivers a check to Moller, who was skating with his head down into the offensive zone– if Finger made contact with Moller’s noggin, that’s why. Armstrong can’t exactly check the replay before defending his teammate, so he moved in on Finger based on what he saw transpire. Which is a tad admirable when you consider Armstrong isn’t exactly Craig Berube with the fight card.

That said, the whole “fight after a clean hit” thing is getting really, really annoying.

Greg is dead right here.

Unfortunately, this is a side effect of something that many hockey fans cherish deeply, and is promoted by the Pope, his Cherryness himself: players policing themselves.

Well, it just so happens the players have chosen to self-police actions that happen to be legal in the game. Oops.

So now what?

Now, I’m not anti-fighting, and I’m not against the concept of players keeping each other honest, but this is the other side of that double-edged sword: the players (unlike the refs) aren’t obligated, or necessarily see it in their own and team’s self-interest, to remain within the rules.

How to fix this? I’d like to recommend a couple of rule changes, one minor, one — not so.

First, where I used to be a strong supporter of the instigator rule, I’ve come around to a different view. That view doesn’t involve removing the instigator though, but, well, sort of decriminalizing it.

In my new reality, the instigator penalty becomes 2/10 for the first offense in a game, and 2/10/game for the second by the same player. If a player commits an instigation in the last 10 minutes of a game or in overtime, he is ineligible to play the next game, but it’s not a suspension without pay and doesn’t count as a suspension in terms of other future penallties.

No suspensions, no fines. Sit in the box, unless you do it late, the you sit the next game. No long-term or increasing suspensions for repeat actions. That removes most of the criticisms against the current instigator rule without removing it completely, and to be honest — we still want to discourage people from playing the policeman rule indiscriminately (which is, in reality, the underlying problem of this “legal hit retribution” problem, no?); so the 2/10 penalty puts enough pain into instigation that it’ll cause players to pick their spots and be careful about when and how they do the policing. Which is what we want.

The second rule change directly involves this “after a clean hit” aspect.

Any time a player leaves his position to initiate an altercation with another player, it’s instigation. Period. Think of it as a lesser form of third man in.

If Chris Pronger and Jordan Tootoo go into the corner together and Tootoo checks Pronger into the boards, after which Pronger grabs Tootoo and pounds the living daylights out of him, that’s covered under existing rules (and we’ll all cheer).

If, however, Tootoo puts Selanne into the boards, and Pronger skates over and pounds the living daylights out of Tootoo — that is what this new rule will cover. Doesn’t matter if the hit is legal or not, what matters is that a player LEFT HIS POSITION to initiate with another player. Under the new rule, that’s an instigator, whether or not fighting is involved.

The determination here for me is two items: (1) did a player leave his assignment and (2) is it a hockey play? If the answer to both is no, this new rule applies.

These rules also leave a lot of wiggle room for players to police themselves, but with a strong encouragement towards doing it “in a hockey way” and “picking their spots”. Both attitudes even Don Cherry would probably agree with.

I would also hope that — by removing some of the bad side effects of the current instigator rule — that it would encourage refs to call it more often in situations where it’s warranted. I understand what the league is trying to do with it, but I think it’s biased a little too heavy. Cut back the penalties a bit, but call it strictly when warranted, and I think it would work out better for all.