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Wayne Gretzky warned against not protecting the NHL’s best players and was dubbed by some as, “Whine Gretzky." Brett Hull spoke out against the way the game is played and he was written off as.....well "being Brett." Mario Lemieux warned against it and he was discounted as a baby who felt he deserved special treatment.
And “Why not?” I ask. Players like Gretzky, Hull, Lemieux, Yzerman, Federov, Sakic, Modano as well as the NHL’s future stars: St. Louis, Kovalchuck, Heatley, Richards, Thornton and Gomez among others, should be treated differently because these players make the NHL the greatest league in the world.
The NHL is steeped in history and tradition and therefore rarely makes radical changes to the game. Therefore, I am not advocating for radical changes to the rules, but rather for focusing on the league's interpretation of the rules, instruction of the rules and the league's commitment of more resources for officials. In order to fully understand my perspective, I believe it important to briefly outline the history of the NHL as I experienced it.
I have distant memories as a boy in the 1960’s watching “Hockey Night in Canada” and I witnessed expansion in 1967. I watched great Montreal Canadiens’ teams with Yvan Cournoyer, Jean Beliveau and Jacques Lemaire. I vividly remember when Bobby Orr arrived on the scene, and in his break-out season with the Boston Bruins, won the Stanley Cup in 1970 and again in 1972. The Bruins dazzled us with their skill and their hard physical style of play on the small rink of the Boston Garden. Orr and Company received the nickname,“The Big Bad Bruins," but not one player was bad, nor really that big. However, they were a great team that bonded together and played with tremendous overall team skill and toughness.
Philadelphia responded with “The Broad Street Bullies” and won two Stanley Cups in 1973 and 1974. Dave “the Hammer” Schultz glamorized the role of the goon and the Flyers changed the make-up of the game with players like Gary Dornhoeffer, Don Saleski, Dave Schultz, Andre Dupont, Ed Van Impe and Bob Kelly. The evolving game in the NHL influenced the minor leagues and the minor league style of play became the impetus for the movie Slapshot.
The Montreal Canadiens continued its dynasty of skill and “team toughness” in the late 1970’s with the likes of Guy LaFleur, Pete Mahovlich, Lemaire, Guy LaPointe and Larry Robinson. The New York Islanders responded with their own skill and overall “team toughness” in the early 80’s with Bryan Trottier, Mike Bossy, Denis Potvin, John Tonelli, Bobby Nystrom, Clark Gillies and Billy Smith. These dynasty teams could win however any other team wished to play…with skill or toughness.
Then in 1984, in a Stanley Cup rematch with the New York Islanders, the Edmonton Oilers’ players became of age and created the NHL’s most recent dynasty. The Oilers were dominant with Wayne Gretzky, Jari Kurri, Mark Messier, Glenn Anderson, Paul Coffey and Grant Fuhr. The Oilers successfully intimidated other teams with their youth, speed, and skill.
Edmonton not only had the fastest and most skilled team in the league, but Glen Sather had taken a page from Fred Shero’s Philadelphia Flyers’ playbook and had one of the toughest teams in the league with Dave Semenko, Marty McSorley, Kevin McClelland, Don Jackson, Ken Linesman, Dave Lumley, Dave Hunter and Wayne Van Dorp. The Oilers could play whatever game a team wanted to play and dominate. There was no team as fast, as skilled or as tough.
In the 1980’s, as a tactic, the Oilers created scrums and pushing matches so that players from both teams would be put in the penalty box. Four-on-four, there was no better team than Edmonton, and with that advantage, the Oilers feasted on all other teams in the league…until the NHL decided the Oilers’ style of play was unfair, and neutralized Edmonton’s game by implementing the coincidental penalties rule. My, my, how things have changed!
Edmonton was the best in the NHL and every team dreamed of finding a way to beat them. Bob Johnson, the coach of the Calgary Flames, worked day and night looking for ways to beat the Oilers by trying to neutralize their speed and skill, and to do this he needed players who could skate well and who were also tough.
I played an important role within Badger Bob’s system and my role as a member of the Calgary Flames was the same as in guerrilla warfare. I was unpredictable at a time when most players were predictable. I kept players guessing by distracting them and keeping them off their game.
It was a time in the game when tough guys fought tough guys, and a tough guy would never turn away from a fight. The “goons” protected the skilled players, and no one touched the skilled players unless they wanted a fight, a line-brawl or even a bench-clearing brawl, of which Calgary and Edmonton had many. This was the way the game was played until the NHL implemented rules that awarded a 10-game suspension (without pay) for the first player over the bench in a brawl.
I pushed and prodded Gretzky to get him thinking more about me than about scoring goals. Consequently, I had to face Semenko, McSorley, Jackson and McClelland every night, but I would not fight them. I took several hits to the head and was challenged to fight every shift. I told these tough guys that I would get fined if I fought them and Kevin McClelland eloquently quipped, “I’ll pay it,” because he and his teammates so desperately wanted a "piece of me."
The officials didn’t call many penalties against the Oilers until we “The Flames” used the media to highlight that fact. We got the story out that our players were being mugged and challenged to fight, and the Oilers were not being penalized. A couple officials even said to me, "Don't worry, you'll get yours"! In part because of the Oilers' tactics which were exposed in our battles, the NHL eventually reacted and implemented the “instigator rule.” From then on, any player that instigated a fight received a two-minute minor.
I continued to rock the boat. I hit the skilled players and would not fight the tough ones, which distracted both the skilled and tough players. I was now allowed to annoy Gretzky to distraction and was able to keep Edmonton’s tough guys off-center by drawing penalties, and this was a time when Calgary had the #1 power-play in the NHL.
I was not held as accountable for my tactics like I had been my first couple years as a player. The rules now protected me and I was able to use them to make my game more effective by neutralizing the skill of opposing forwards. It was one of the reasons which enabled the Calgary Flames to have consistent and continued success against the Edmonton Oilers.
This began a shift in how the game was played throughout the NHL, a process which has continued to evolve the last twenty years. Coaches studied the great Edmonton Oilers’ teams and the tactics the Flames successfully used against them. Players were then expected to implement similar tactics, and unfortunately, because the NHL allowed such tactics without individual player accountability, an increasing number of players adopted this style, which legally shuts down the best offensive players, but which also eliminates a great degree of skill from the game.
Additionally, I believe the "Todd Bertuzzi" incident never would have happened if the instigator rule didn't exist and if players were better able to police themselves. This situation would have been dealt with long before and a star player like Bertuzzi probably would not have been involved. I do not condone what Bertuzzi did and his actions have absolutely no place in the NHL game. Incidents like this do more to hurt our sport throughout the United States, where the league is in quest of the elusive television contract, than periodic fisticuffs among its players throughout the regular season.
What other changes have recently occured in the NHL that have further eroded and neutralized skill and play-making in the league?
Another major change in the NHL occurred in the 90’s when it expanded from twenty-one teams to thirty. The league also opened its doors to eastern European players with the fall of the Iron Curtain. However, most of these players were already drafted by established NHL teams, which forced the expansion teams to acquire less accomplished players. However, coaches needed to compete immediately, so they had to find ways to neutralize the higher skill of the established teams.
I have often heard players express complete disdain for what seems to be the most commonly used words of their coaches, “Chip it in! Chip it out...chip, chip, chip!” Today's coaches are coaching the highest percentage play, given today's rules and the way today's game is officiated.
Great coaches like Scotty Bowman, Glen Sather, Bob Johnson and Herb Brooks all coached their players to keep puck possession and use their skill and abilities to make plays, because these coaches believed their teams worked hard to get the puck; there was no reason to give it away.
Today, when a team is not as skilled, a coach will commonly instruct his players to make “safe” plays…“get it in” or “get it out” or “chip it in” or “chip it out." And because only sixteen of the thirty NHL teams make it to the playoffs, coaches "play it safe" in order to keep their jobs, and that has further stifled skill and puck possession in the NHL.
Since the mid-90’s, the NHL has promoted speed and high-impact body contact in hopes of attracting a national television audience. What effect has that had on the game? It has encouraged high-impact body contact, with reckless abandon, which is often over-looked by officials and this has further eroded skill in professional hockey.
And what is charging? I was taught as a young player that if you took more than three steps toward an opponent and made contact, you would be penalized for "charging." That is no longer the case in the NHL. Allowing players to charge without penalty causes skilled players to lose the puck in order to protect themselves when trying to make a play. As a consequence, coaches often yell, “Don’t give the puck away!…Chip it in!…Get it deep!”
It should be no surprise that the number of concussions has increased in the game today. High-impact contact is encouraged, and charging and "head-hunting" are allowed. For players to make contact at high-speed, they must take more than three steps before making contact, which by the rulebook is charging. The league has in effect, removed player accountability. Players are not penalized for these types of infractions, and this continues the trend that eliminates skill from the game because skilled players must continue to protect themselves at the expense of puck possession.
Furthermore, a complete lack of respect among players has permeated the game. The NHL instituted a penalty for “hitting from behind," but now players have purposefully created the tactic of turning their backs to an oncoming body-check in hopes of drawing a penalty, at the expense of possibly being injured. This is how sick our game has become.
Skilled players are not allowed to play a skilled game, because if they do, they risk being injured and possibly ending their careers. In addition, coaches bench a player if he unsuccessfully tries to make a play other than by "chipping the puck in the zone" and "getting it deep." Players are also coached not to make plays on either side of the blue-lines because they might turn the puck over and create an odd-man rush the other way.
Coaches want their players to agitate opponents and draw penalties. “Agitate, but don’t fight," they say. This was a novel idea back in the 80’s, but now it is the norm and our overall game is suffering because of it. It neutralizes skill and frustrates the very players that make hockey “the greatest game in the world.”
I agree with Brett Hull and Mario Lemieux regarding the necessity of the NHL protecting its most skilled players. I believe the instigator rule should be eliminated. The officials should not be forced to call more penalties with new rules, but rather focus on calling fewer penalties and allow players to police themselves. If this were to happen, the tactics of trying to draw more penalties would be diminished.
If a player is held accountable for the way he plays, by facing retribution without the prospect of drawing a penalty, in most cases he will likely stop his tactics. Therefore the role of the "tough-guy" should remain important in the NHL to make players accountable but it can be kept under control. This would help open up the game and give it back to the skilled players.
The NHL changes its rules to compensate for the tactics players develop given the rules that the NHL creates. With each new rule, players develop a new set of tactics. The league needs to think “outside the box” and become less reactionary and more intuitive.
Officiating is a thankless job but it is extremely important in hockey and the NHL must invest greater resources into working with its officials. An alternative to having two officials on the ice calling a game, would be to have one referee watch from above and consult with the on-ice referee between periods and after each game. The two can switch each night from on the ice to off and from off the ice to on. This would help officials get a better feel of the league and to understand the tactics and tendencies of the players, which would help them become better officials with a better feel for the game.
Officials do the best they can given their direction from the league. The focus of the NHL should also be on working with its officials to protect the league's most skilled players. If the NHL would allow the players to police themselves within reason, and give the officials the leeway to control it, the tactics players use to draw penalties would eventually lessen and skilled players would again be able to fully showcase their abilities.
Additionally, players should not be allowed to make contact after taking more than three steps, and if a player leaves his feet to make contact, he should be penalized. The rulebook should be enforced and charging should be called. If so, skilled players would have more opportunity to play a skilled game, and there would be fewer injuries, fewer concussions and hockey would benefit at all levels.
Indeed, there are numerous possible remedies that would help "fix" our ailing game...and I have highlighted a few, but I believe the NHL Commissioner's "Number One" focus should be to insist that its officials understand the critical fact that NHL Players Are Not Created Equal Nor Should They Be Treated As If They Are…when the game is on. |
