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Babcock Gambled, Lost... and Still Won |
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Follow Paul on Twitter: @PaulStewart22
In last night's game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Columbus Blue Jackets, Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock employed a legal but risky strategy in the third period. Babcock, a coach who is well-versed in the NHL Rule Book (not every coach is, although they ought to be) employed a penalty killing personnel management strategy where the potential drawbacks can outweigh the benefits.
Early in the third period, Toronto's Roman Polak received a major penalty and game misconduct for boarding Columbus' Oliver Bjorkstrand. With Polak out of the game, Babcock had two choices under NHL Rule 20.3 -- 1) Send another player to the penalty box to serve the major penalty, 2) Play down a man on the ice but keep all other personnel available.
It's not all that uncommon for coaches to opt for the second choice and then send someone to the box at a stoppage of play during the latter portion of the major penalty to serve its remainder. Upon the expiration of the five minute penalty clock, the player serving the penalty for the ejected (or an injured) teammate exits the penalty box and his team reverts to having full manpower.
What happens if no one is sent to the box to serve the remaining time? We saw the consequence last night.
By rule, the penalized team must continue to play one man down on the ice until the next stoppage of play. In the case of last night's game, the next stoppage did not take place until nearly two minutes after the expiration of the Polak penalty. By the way, back in the old days, Boston and Montreal tried sneaking players in as the box was next to their benches hoping the refs wouldn't notice. It never worked, but they tried.
The Maple Leafs basically put themselves shorthanded for seven minutes instead of five at a time they were leading just 3-2 in the third period. Babcock gambled and lost with his bench management during the major penalty kill, but his players bailed him out. There was no goal scored by the Blue Jackets during the extra time with the manpower advantage. The Leafs went on score twice more later in the period and won the game, 5-2.
For Toronto on this night, all was well that ended well. By the way, for record keeping purposes, if Columbus had scored a goal during the extended post-penalty stretch in which the Lefs were down a man, it would have been considered an even-strength tally.
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Paul Stewart holds the distinction of being the first U.S.-born citizen to make it to the NHL as both a player and referee. On March 15, 2003, he became the first American-born referee to officiate in 1,000 NHL games.
Today, Stewart serves as director of hockey officiating for the ECAC.
Blogger •Former NHL Referee • 
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