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The National Hockey League has decided not to suspend Vancouver Canucks forward Alex Burrows for an instigation penalty incurred in a late-game fight with Calgary Flames defenseman Kris Russell in Game 3 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals on Sunday. I am not big fan of Burrows' sneakily opportunistic style of play, but I don't have a problem with the decision in the abstract.
Rule 46.22 implements an automatic suspension for instigation penalties within the last five minutes of the third period, subject to League review. The NHL decided that this was not a "message sending" or retaliatory incident and could just as easily have arisen at any other point in a game.
I can see that. Of course, Burrows had hit (diminutive) rookie standout Johnny Gaudreau from behind -- not an uncommon thing for Burrows when the chance presents itself -- but the fight with Russell in and of itself was reactive and premeditated.
In the bigger picture, this is yet another case of the NHL putting down rules that could have unintended effects, and then deciding to ignore its own rules seemingly on whims of convenience. The instigator rule is one that often creates more headaches than it cures, both for the officials on the ice and the league discipline office.
One of the saddest things that ever happened to hockey, in my opinion, is that the lawyers and coat holders (AKA folks who never played and are legislators, not actual doers) took over as it became big business. The sport has spent so much time, effort and money trying to win over the segments of the public and the media who NEVER liked, understood or cared about the game and never will.
Let the game have some personality. Let it be emotional. That's hockey. As a player of the 1970s to early 1980s and a ref of the 1980s to 2000s, I found instigator penalties to be a non-deterrent to players and something that ties officials' hands.
When I was refereeing games, I would often say "go ahead" when two guys were acting like they wanted to square off. Believe me, that's not what some of the League's pseudo tough guys wanted to hear!
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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 is an officiating and league discipline consultant for the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) and serves as director of hockey officiating for the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC).
The longtime referee heads Officiating by Stewart, a consulting, training and evaluation service for officials. Stewart also maintains a busy schedule as a public speaker, fund raiser and master-of-ceremonies for a host of private, corporate and public events. As a non-hockey venture, he is the owner of Lest We Forget.
In addition to his blogs for HockeyBuzz every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, Stewart writes a column every Wednesday for the Huffington Post.