Starting with the idiotic way the NHL seeds their teams, and culminating in the worst and most boring Final in years, the NHL Playoffs were a huge disappointment this year.
A lot of this is luck - like the upsets, and most of the bad reffing - but much of it is self inflicted.
First of all, the Playoffs would be so much better if they didn't last so long.
The league should chop ten games off the regular season, seed the teams 1 to 16, and FFS make it so every game is worth the same amount of points. With the playoffs starting in Mid-March, and no forty day breaks between series, the playoffs can end at least a few days before the World Series starts.
It's June 8th today, there should be no hockey.
Secondly, they have to get the officiating under control. I think Twitter makes it seem worse than it is, but there are so many easy to fix things that it's just annoying they keep happening.
Go back to one ref. Put the second ref in the stands with a monitor and a headset. Boom! You now have accurate, real-time refereeing.
Now completely eliminate the coaches challenge which is F___ stupid. Have the Toronto Office call down if there are any egregious violations the refs miss (like Matt Duchene being ten feet offside) but let the petty stuff go. The off-side rule was not put in place to call back goals on line changes where no one on the ice is effecting the play.
Third, call the game by the rule book. Will that ruin one season? Yes, probably. But after that it should be fine. The NHL needs to be a league where the first cross check is a penalty, not just the eighth one.
They also need to eliminate the even-up call. Teams like the Leafs, who don't get penalties, get screwed by even-up calls. Instead of getting a deserved four power-plays in a row, the Leafs draw a penalty, only to have the refs award one to their opponent to "keep things even."
It's like if your neighbor was an arsonist and went to jail, and as an even up call, you had to do ten years for jay-walking.
That's it. If the NHL does these things, they'll be fine. A lot of what sucked about the playoffs this year (all the up-sets, Boston advancing) can't really be helped, and is just random.
But the league can improve the officiating and end the playoffs earlier.
Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»