Paul Stewart: The October Rule Book vs. April Rule Book

Stewie,

Something I always had an issue with is the stick swinging dive and getting the puck first then the offensive player goes down but its a good no call because he got the puck first.

It's something I never understood. How is that a good hockey play? Sure you knocked the puck away and got the puck first but you still tripped a guy, no?

You can trip a player in the neutral zone chasing a dump in and its called either tripping or interference but if you trip a guy that you just knocked the puck away by swinging your stick in a last second final desperation dive its a good play?

I am glad they are going to crack down on that it made no sense to me. The new penalty shot rule makes sense you knocked the puck away before bringing him down, but I never understood why this was never called in the past.

"This is where the "October Rule Book vs. April Rule Book" phenomenon happens in the NHL. Of course, the book itself is still the same but the enforcement directives and supervision tends to change course. Sometimes it's a needed adjustment. Other times, it's simply a reaction to controversy."

Might be if the officials called the game by the rules at some point the players would adapt. But officials even early on in the season start to manage games.

I have numerous times where one team comes out flying and another one is flat. The game is pure dominance. The refs start out calling the game correctly and then it is 3-0 in the first period.

Some how in the second, unless the losing team crosses the line in utter frustration, the same penalties in the first period are no longer called. Anything resembling, but often not a penalty, by the dominant team and it is called.

I appreciate the NHL is an entertainment industry. Still the way the refs manage the game is more in tune with watching wrestling than a real sport.

While NHL officials are in truth good officials, somewhere along the line they are taught managing games is acceptable and they are to be managed a certain way at the start, in the middle and into the play offs.

I am by no means a Canucks fan, but even into those play offs before the finals the game was being called certain way. Come the finals the Canucks were robbed of their first Cup when the rules changed dramatically over night. I watched the beginning of the return of the clutch and grab league and I watch it continue more and more each year.