The NHL preseason has begun. So has the complaining. Last night there were quite a number of power plays. The flow of the games were not very good. I say so what. I love that “ticky tack” slashing was called. You can’t complain about Sidney Crosby mutilating Marc Methot’s finger and then get mad about slashing penalties being called. A penalty is a penalty. The league has just ignored that concept for so long that everybody has become apathetic to the terrible standard. Players reach in with their stick or grab a hold of another player because they got beat. Stop rewarding players who get beat.

Here’s the deal. The preseason does not matter in the slightest bit. One of the few things that can get accomplished during this time is the referees introducing their new standard of calling penalties. It’s going to be a mess at first. It might even be tough to watch. Again, it’s the preseason so who cares. Players will learn and adapt. There will be short term growing pains just like there were in 2005-06. Players will complain, coaches will complain, some general managers will probably complain. Let them. The people that complain about penalties actually being called penalties will adapt. Long term this will create a more free flowing game at even-strength. This is the most logical path to improving the product. It remains the most obvious. You don’t need any of the other clever ideas if this one is done correctly. We have an entire season (2005-06) as evidence.

I’m not yet optimistic that this standard will carry over to the regular season. This league has long lost the benefit of the doubt. Don’t tell me, show me. However, I will say that if the standard really is going to change it would most definitely start in the preseason. So there’s that.

Here is to hoping the light bulb finally went off and we can start to see the actual talent in the league start to put up offense numbers like they used to. This should be fun after all.

Thanks for reading!

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