The NHL needs to get a handle on what is "incidental contact" and what is not.
A decade after the less-than memorable 1999 Stanley Cup final that was decided by Brett Hull's disputed foot-in-the-crease goal, the NHL still doesn't seem to have a clear definition of how to deal with crease-crashing, goaltender interference and even goaltenders interfering with opposing players in their midst.
Remember last season when the league cracked down on Detroit's Tomas Holmstrom being seemingly anywhere near a goaltender?
This season we've already seen New Jersey goaltender Martin Brodeur throw a hissy fit after twice being jostled on plays that led to goals in an eventual 4-3 loss to Carolina. The plays were close and you could argue that while Brodeur was interfered with on one goal, it was Brodeur who did the interfering on the play that ultimately led to the game-winning goal in the same game.
But then there's also the question of whether or not Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby interfered with Philadelphia's Marty Biron on a goal (that was allowed to stand) after Crosby drove through the crease en route to having a goal go in off both the shaft of his stick and his body while Biron was trying to get across the crease.
Not surprisingly the rules aren't crystal clear on these kinds of plays and one can say with some certainty that they never can be, but Crosby didn't have control of the puck when he entered the crease yet the goal was allowed to stand even though a similar goal off a similar play in the regular season (oddly enough involving the Buffalo Sabres) was disallowed.
Normally the rulings on Rule 69 are simple: an attacking player makes incidental contact with the goalkeeper at the time a goal is scored and the goal is allowed. But what exactly is "incidental contact" and doesn't the goalie have the right to unfettered room in the crease?
One could argue Biron didn't get it.
An even bigger question is whether or not officials are all on the same page regarding those interpretations and whether or not the people doing video replay have the same understanding of contact, incidental or otherwise, as the people working the game at ice level.
Ice-level views are different from press-box views the same way that real-time action is different than video-replay action.
It gets even more complicated when a goalie moves outside his crease. The rules say he can be hit, but the rules also indicate that there are no rules and certainly no video review regarding a goal scored when the goalie is outside the crease. But what defines outside? Is he totally outside, or what if one foot is in and the rest of his body is out and who determines jurisdiction then?
It gets even more complex when an attacking player pushes a defending player into the goaltender who may be in the crease, at the top of it or has parts of himself and his equipment in both places. This happened in both the Calgary-Chicago series (Martin Havlat's game winner in Game 1) and the New Jersey- Carolina series (Chad LaRose's goal that knotted the game at 2-2) giving rise to the claim that it's a contrived play, not simply an inevitable circumstance that arises from players driving to the net.
All this and we're still in the first round. It will be interesting to see if the Hockey Operations Department addresses this (as they did in what appeared to be a directive aimed directly at Holmstrom as the final series between Detroit and Pittsburgh got underway). Even more interesting will be if they do address it, do they announce it to the fans?
IN FAVOUR OF LOU:
Count me as one jumping on the Roberto Luongo bandwagon. His four-game performance vs. the St. Louis Blues was brilliant and St. Louis was not the pushover that a sweep would indicate.
Almost as impressive was the play of Alex Burrows. Did you happen to notice that St. Louis coach Andy Murray was obsessed with the fact that Burrows managed to sneak out on a line change when one shouldn't have legally been made just before Game 3 went to overtime. That's quite a mark of respect for a kid who started the season as a role player and worked himself up to be a first-line contributor who is more productive than the much-touted Mats Sundin.
The Canucks got far more from their role players than the Blues got from the top guns who carried them from last place in the West to a spot in the playoffs over the second half of the season. Luongo had a say in that, but Vancouver was far more than a one-line team and their ability to come at their opponent in waves of equal proportion should serve them well in the second round.
There's a team that has come together in Vancouver and it's fun to watch.
SACRE BLEU, MONTREAL
There's a lot of pressure on Montreal goalie Carey Price and surely a lot of blame for the sweep by the Boston Bruins will fall on him, but that was a putrid effort by Price's teammates in the Game 4 loss at home and letting the Bruins run wild for two-on-one breaks and open-net chances isn't Price's fault.
The whole Montreal game-plan now seems at risk as GM Bob Gainey's rebuilding plan has produced nothing but disappointment and a string of fired coaches, several of whom have come back to Montreal with different teams and showed the GM that coaching might not have been Montreal's problem.
Because of contracts expiring, Gainey's team is wide open to a total makeover, but it remains to be seen what, if any, free agents want to sign on for what appears to be a long cruise to nowhere. It also remains to be seen if Gainey will be the man charged with the rebuilding.
One could make a case that these Canadiens didn't deserve to even make the playoffs. One could also argue that these same Canadiens proved it.
And for the record maybe we all owe Research in Motion boss Jim Balsillie an apology. Balsillie may have spoken out of turn when he told Montreal reporters (off the record by the way) that the team was for sale, but it's now abundantly clear that he wasn't wrong or even misinformed.
HE LIKES US, HE REALLY LIKES US
And yet another media member joins the ranks of the converted.
Randy Youngman, a columnist for the Orange County Register, a quality newspaper out of Anaheim, is, by his own admission, more of an NBA guy than a hockey guy, but as is so often the case in today's age of challenged newspapers, he's been pressed into service joining the talented and hockey knowledgeable Mark Wicker on the trail of the Stanley Cup.
And what has Youngman discovered? Try this:
"The NBA postseason is entertaining, but the NHL postseason is absolutely riveting. It's my favourite playoff sport, a feeling driven home again in the span of three days this week after covering Game 1 of the Lakers-Jazz series at Staples Center and Game 3 of the Ducks-Sharks series at Honda Center.
The NFL playoffs are overshadowed by one game. The World Series succeeds only if the matchup captivates the nation. (Philadelphia-Tampa Bay last year did not.) March Madness often is more exciting in the earlier rounds of the NCAA tournament if there are compelling upsets and Cinderella stories. The system that determines a BCS national champion in college football is a joke.
All of which brings me back to the Stanley Cup playoffs, which became my favourite postseason sport in the late 1980s when I had the privilege of watching Wayne Gretzky and the Kings up close."
Youngman then goes on to list why the NHL is the better entertainment and includes the seeding process, sudden-death overtime, fighting (he's not in favour, but he gets it and understands it comes from the intensity of the competition), the man-advantage, the paucity of timeouts available to coaches (a drag that neither college nor pro basketball has ever been able to overcome), the toughness and commitment of the players and the game's many and varied traditions like playoff beards and post-series handshakes.
Our game has shortfalls and hockey media (and I confess I am often in the front row in this regard) seem to always dwell on its shortcomings, but it's clear Youngman has fallen in love with the game for the same reasons that we all have and even with its warts the postseason is something that annually brings both excitement and entertainment that few if any other sport can match.
Check Youngman out in depth at www.ocregister.com . He's living proof that there are hockey converts in the States and that you don't have to be born to the game to come to appreciate it. It's a concept that fueled NHL expansion and there are more than a few places in the States where an appreciation of the game has taken hold.
