And while that is not entirely true, that may very well be how some might interpret it after league disciplinarian, Colin Campbell, communicated a new rule interpretation to combat Sean Avery's screen tactics against Marty Brodeur.
Is it me or is this why we have a Competition Committee? Is it me or is this why the Board of Governors gets together every year to meet about the NHL's rules?
INTERPRETATION OF RULE 75 – UNSPORTSMANLIKE CONDUCTSure Collie may have just been interpreting a rule. But he has essentially created a whole new rule in the context of an old one.
NEW YORK/TORONTO (April 14, 2008) -- National Hockey League Senior Executive Vice President and Director of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell today issued the following advisory on the interpretation of Rule 75 - Unsportsmanlike Conduct: "An unsportsmanlike conduct minor penalty (Rule 75) will be interpreted and applied, effective immediately, to a situation when an offensive player positions himself facing the opposition goaltender and engages in actions such as waving his arms or stick in front of the goaltender's face, for the purpose of improperly interfering with and/or distracting the goaltender as opposed to positioning himself to try to make a play."
Next thing you know, Collie will be sending notice that penalties will be stiffened for teams that fight towards the end of a playoff game. Wait a second, as reported on TSN, that has already happened too!
Paul, Paul, Paul. What will you do? This is the league disciplinarian that is essentially toying with the rules of the game in which your players play. Time to step it up Paul.
More on Avery's screen tactics:
2 comments:
1) While we would concede that any sentence that has 'dumb' and 'Avery' in it risks being duplistic, we will still state that we are not in favour of the NHL's new "Avery rule." .
2) Did it work? Hard to say, but Avery DID score not long after the incident. There are conflicting stories that team mates such as Chris Drury and Brendan Shanahan told Avery to cut it out during the play, but they did not confirm this afterwards to reporters. All TV commentators made note of the unusual manner in which Avery was trying to distract the opposing goalie. Almost all were in agreement that the Avery mannerisms were 'despicable/reprehensible'. There was almost universal condemnation of Avery and his tactics among writers and non Ranger fans alike.
3) So as a result of this uproar should we be surprised that Gary Bettman and his lap dog poodle Colin Campbell decided to 'interpret' the rule to make any future moves like this illegal? In reality there was no such rule, but the league had to act quickly to try to stem the tide of negative publicity that Avery had unearthed. While we don't particularly like Avery. Many may recall how we included him as our 'starting center' in our all-prickmost-hated-teams. However we detest when the NHL knee-jerks into changing rules. He never made contact with Brodeur, and he was not in the goalie crease. If what Avery did was a penalty the TWO referees in attendance Sunday didn't think so. It looked infintile/stupid, and dangerous to he and to anyone around him, but unless he actualy hits someone it doesn't appear to be against the rules. Apparently the on-ice officials agreed. If it needed to become a penalty there is a method in place to change rules, but NOT until after the season.
Basically this was something that should have been taken care of a while back...not now. The NHL screws up again and besides the refs screwed up Game 2 anyway. I call it even :P
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