I’m Canadian and I’m supposed to like hockey, but I’ve given up on the N.H.L. I hadn’t come to this realization until this year, although I’ve got to say that the inclination to abandon our national sport has been lurking for a while now.
The regular season is entertaining enough that I’d watch the odd game, but the playoffs are another matter all together. I tried to remain faithful to the sport, but after game two of the first matchup out of the gate I’d had enough, and shut the television off and wandered off to find something else to keep me occupied.
My reasoning for bailing on the game took me a while to sort out, but the bottom line was that I was no longer entertained. The regular season provided some decent highlights as far as talent goes, but the playoff highlights all seem to involve a facewash, an injury or a goal mouth scrum with five players in the crease.
The commentators invariably talk about playoff hockey as if somehow the game is distinct from regular hockey, and I guess they’re right.
In playoff hockey hammering an opposing defenseman into the boards a few seconds after he’s passed the puck is called finishing your check. In the regular season the same play is called roughing, boarding or interference. In playoff hockey a face wash or a crosscheck after the whistle is called intensity. In the regular season the identical behavior is a penalty. Take your pick, roughing, unsportsmanlike or as mentioned, crosschecking.
So, it appears that the N.H.L. has two sets of rules. Regular season and playoffs, and I personally think the situation sucks. The second set of rules employed for the playoffs create an entirely different atmosphere for the game, and I’ve concluded that the unwritten playoff rules are responsible for the suckage I mentioned earlier. You can tell rule set number two is in effect when the commentators start describing certain players as the energy line or the grinders. These grinders spend the regular season in relative anonymity compared to the high end players. But as soon as the playoffs begin the energy lines on every team rise to prominence and decide who wins and loses.
Which is odd.
Are the grinders just plodding their way through the schedule and saving their energy for the playoff’s? Are they sandbagging the league and the fans?
No, no they’re not. They just get a shitload more latitude to grind, slash, hold and basically mug the talented players during the playoffs. Latitude that they aren’t allowed during the regular season. In my opinion this new freedom to wantonly assault the more talented players lessens the sport and makes it almost ridiculous.
I get the amped up energy. Playoffs are by their very nature more intense, because money and legacy are up for grabs. But, I think that intensity should elevate the sport, and the current set up of the N.H.L. champion quest does exactly the opposite.
It devalues the game by making the most skilled of players ineffectual. The game loses it’s focus on talent and refocuses on intimidation, violence and eventually attrition. And yet lot’s of people see absolutely nothing wrong with the current state of affairs on ice.
So. what if the other major sports leagues decided to throw away their whistles and let the players play?
What if the N.F.L. decided that regular season rules didn’t apply in the playoffs. That a three hundred pound defensive lineman was now free to spear his helmet into a defenseless quarterback a few seconds after that quarterback had thrown the football. What if the refs decided that the lineman was just finishing his tackle?
Maybe those same referee’s could decide that interference wasn’t against the rules anymore, and the superstar receivers needed to grind their way through the defensive backs?
What if three out of four plays ended in a skirmish with players throwing the odd punch to emphasize how much energy they possessed? Or, what if clipping and blindside blocks were fair game and the energy players were just taking away time and space?
I think that after al the quarterbacks were taken away in ambulances there might just be a rethink of how to call and enforce rules.
But the N.H.L. has decided that the fans want violence and the grinders are happy to provide the fans with what they want.
I’m just not one of those fans anymore.