Paul Stewart: The Lend/Lease Principle

Love the icing rule you suggested Stewie. Would definitely make the game more exciting.

On a related subject, is it me, or does it look like the goalie equipment has grown out of proportion? The chest and shoulder pads alone, necessitate an XXXXXL jersey to cover it all and leaves shooters very small spaces to shoot at.

And lastly, I’d still remove the instigator rule! I think guys need to pay with their face when they take liberties on the ice. A fine or suspension is peanuts compared to all the millions they make.

Guess I’m an old school hockey guy.

What say you Paul?

In front of each team's bench, there is a rectangle. If you are the player leaving the playing surface, you must have your feet in that rectangle before your replacement teammate can leave the rectangle and get into the play. If those simple aspects are not satisfied, the call is a penalty for "too many men!"
- Paul Stewart

But what if the player coming off of the ice is 6 inches from the edge of the rectangle and no advantage is gained by the change? If you don't like automatic calls and want the referees to be able to use their own judgement more, this seems to counteract that approach.

Same for the icing rule. How many times a game do we see a team try to pass it to a teammate only for the pass to be slightly off the mark and for it to turn into an icing call? Now we want to give them a penalty for misfiring on a pass? No thank you.

As the defensive coach in my son's youth league I almost always send the replacement player(s) out pretty early for the guys coming off because the officials need to follow the play more then what's going on away from it. So we got away with stretching the rules a bit and I figured I'd stop when they started making calls on us. That never happened.

While that's obviously a long way from NHL hockey and NHL refs, I have to wonder how well the on ice officials would be able to watch a painted box for every line change. I also think fans will lose their poop when the inevitable footage of players getting away with a bad change surfaces with no call having been made.... but still it might be worth trying. Seems like a good candidate for AHL experimentation.

Oh, and I am very impressed with a Lend/Lease reference! Great program. Great President.

Another great blog, Paul.

And baseball could definitely use the rule change you suggested.

I remember the Bill Lee injury in 1976. The Yankees Lou Piniella intentionally barreled into Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk at home plate trying to score; Fisk blocked the plate and punches were engaged. When the benches emptied, Graig Nettles went after Lee and threw him down hard on his pitching arm causing torn ligaments in his left shoulder. Damn Yankees.

There was no reason for Nettles to go after Lee like that, except that Nettles was probably still sore from a 1973 Red Sox-Yankee brawl after which Lee compared the Yankees to "a bunch of hookers, swinging their purses."

Bill Lee was only 29 when injured and had three 17-win seasons in a row. Lee missed two months. When he returned in mid-July, the division race was for all practical purposes already over. Lee was never the same pitcher after that, having only one season statistically (in 1979 with Montreal) that approached his pre-injury levels.

The Yankees repeated in 1977 by a margin of two and a half games and in 1978 only by means of a one-game playoff. A healthy Lee would have given the Red Sox a fair chance to repeat in 1976 and would have certainly made the difference in ’77 and ’78.

Nettles wouldn't be remembered for his stunning World Series glove work. No one would remember Reggie Jackson as "Mr. October." And Bucky Dent would not have an obscene middle name.

Even as late as 2001 Nettles still showed no remorse. He told the Hartford Courant, "A couple of their players had scratches [in 1973]," Nettles said. "And Lee said something like, 'You know you're in a fight with the Yankees because you get hit with [fingernails] and purses.' And I remembered it. He was always taking shots at us like that unnecessarily. So I pulled him off and I wanted to make sure he knew he wasn't getting hit with a purse.'"

Considering that the NHL rule for coming off the bench to precipitate a brawl is a 10-game suspension (a rule change done in 1987 under President John Ziegler), perhaps 10 games for baseball as you suggest may actually be too lenient given the schedule is twice as long. But it would be a good start.

Have to say, though, I'm not a great fan of the icing rule related to prohibiting substitutions. I think we all know it was done in an attempt to create more scoring opportunities. Just like the automatic puck over the glass penalty and moving faceoffs to the defending zone when a power play begins.

"H.R. 1776." Nice!

Now we know what your profession would have been without pro hockey: history teacher.

Great blog!
The line change area is long over due, (same with baseball having a 'leaving the bench' penalty.)
Why not make the line change area bordered by a zigzag line. No replays about toes over the line, just have to have a skate in the area

Shout out to PhillipR... you should have a blog on here too.

It would HAVE to be an obvious icing, not one that results from an errant pass. It should call itself.

Stewie - can you please discuss what happened in the SJ/VGK game tonight? SJ iced the puck, and they put a different player out on the ice. The officiating crew spent extra time looking on the tablets who was on the ice, and then looked at a pice of paper from the timekeeper box, to finally figure out that SJ needed to put a player back on the ice. Why wasn't a delay of game called, because they knew that the player was substituted improperly.
That is the kind of crap that happens that fans have to the right to question if the officiating crew is controlling the game.
Burns was on an extended shift and couldn't breathe, and then they delay the face-off. Too obvious.

But what if the player coming off of the ice is 6 inches from the edge of the rectangle and no advantage is gained by the change? If you don't like automatic calls and want the referees to be able to use their own judgement more, this seems to counteract that approach.

Same for the icing rule. How many times a game do we see a team try to pass it to a teammate only for the pass to be slightly off the mark and for it to turn into an icing call? Now we want to give them a penalty for misfiring on a pass? No thank you.

I honestly thought when I read this, that he was intentionally being hypocritical, then I remembered his previous write-up where he actually believes that he doesn't have to listen to the rules and can just call whatever he wants...He wants to remove one ticky-tacky rule for another one. I don't understrand everyones hatred for the Puck over the glass rule, its simple and clear and usually not much controversy.

I'm having trouble understanding why you want a black & white penalty for too many men, but not one for shooting the puck out of the rink?

I'm fine with more B & W penalties and less judgement calls.

I'm having trouble understanding why you want a black & white penalty for too many men, but not one for shooting the puck out of the rink?

I'm fine with more B & W penalties and less judgement calls.

Totally agree. I normally love most of your blogs, Stewie, this is pretty contradictory though. Either we're giving the officials more black and white calls, or going back to the days of more leeway.

My opinion is that we need a more black and white rulebook. There's just too many officiating crews now and consistency is an issue. It was a different time when there was 20 teams and 1 referee on the ice.

When a slew foot creates a game winning 2 on 1 and nobody's talking about it. SMH
https://twitter.com/twitt...atuses/991504128303075329

Either we're giving the officials more black and white calls, or going back to the days of more leeway.
- leafsfann

Seeing as how most refs (just like judges and people in positions of power and control) have a God complex, they prefer the more leeway approach. Rules are only an afterthought they'll pull out to support their thinking (or non-thinking) at the time.

When a slew foot creates a game winning 2 on 1 and nobody's talking about it. SMH
https://twitter.com/twitt...atuses/991504128303075329
- steve_o66

Nobody is talking about it because it was a hockey play - well except for the fact that Maatta tried to sell it and failed.

Enjoy your gatorade commercials. Smoooooth.

When a slew foot creates a game winning 2 on 1 and nobody's talking about it. SMH
https://twitter.com/twitt...atuses/991504128303075329
- steve_o66

That was VERY obvious, cannot believe they missed it!

That was VERY obvious, cannot believe they missed it!
- OrrFour

then you have not watched much hockey and NHL officiating...

there have been a number egregious calls and non calls just in the last few days...

nhl is an embarassement with respect to the officiating....just awful