An embarrassing moment for the league and for Peel, unquestionably. The veteran official was caught saying the quiet part out loud, and the league is understandably concerned about the perception of fairness and integrity within the sport. Doubly so considering recent ventures into the world of sports betting.
But the aftermath of Peel’s removal may end up being the bigger issue for the league. There are two important pieces to this discussion – the first being how “fairness in officiating” is adjudicated, and the second being what the league envisions from its officiating teams.
On the first point, let’s be perfectly clear: NHL officiating in the modern era is set up to balance penalty calls. The moment you go down that path is the moment you start to lose integrity in the rule book.
Balancing entertainment and game flow with good-faith officiating is a battle I think everyone is sympathetic to, but it is obviously paradoxical for the league to have a formalized rule book that is only intermittently enforced.
There are plenty of ways to illustrate this. We can start with a very simple example – consider the first two penalties called in every regular-season game this season, non-offsetting, and the order in which they were called.
Broadly, you would expect a team to have reasonably similar odds at drawing a penalty as taking one over many iterations. But the first penalty of the game frequently dictates who gets the second penalty of the game:
It matters not whether a team is home or away. If your team drew the first penalty, you have a greater than 60 per cent chance at taking the second penalty, creating immediate balancing. If your team took the first penalty, you have a less than 40 per cent chance at drawing the second penalty. This is not a sampling of data from 10 or 20 years ago – we are talking exclusively about the 2020-21 season in this data set.
What becomes apparent very quickly is that the theme of NHL officiating is to balance out penalty calls. Michael Lopez, who has done extraordinary work in this area over the years, showed an important secondary effect. In the event officials have to make consecutive calls against the same team, the incentive to find a corresponding neutralizing penalty increases:
Game management through balanced penalty calls is not theory, it is fact. Previous calls bias what the next call will be, and there is a compounding effect as penalties accumulate on one of the two teams.
That brings us to the second, and perhaps more important question. Should we care, and did Peel really do anything wrong?
Johnson: The conversation about ‘game management’ is necessary and overdue
TSN Hockey analyst Mike Johnson and TSN Hockey Insider Frank Seravalli join James Duthie to discuss the Tim Peel incident, and whether or not this should be the starting point for a greater conversation about how NHL games are being refereed.
This is not a situation of league officials going rogue and merely trying to make their job easier – in fact, I have no doubt that everyone involved is trying to strike the right balance on this issue.
The reality is this type of game management strategy is tacitly accepted by the league. TSN’s Bob McKenzie pointed out that Peel was not fired, will still continue to be paid, and that the NHL may not have an appetite for changing policy on how games are officiated.
Following onto that, TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger noted that the caretakers of the sport are reticent to marginalize officiating judgment as a factor in the sport, a bearish signal for something like increased video review.
To that end, it’s impossible to be frustrated with Peel – the only differentiating factor between Peel and his officiating colleagues is that his comments went public, and the league had to react. But absent Peel no longer working games, what really will change?
It seems to me that game management through officiating is here to stay in the NHL, for better or worse. There are no doubt benefits to this type of approach – game flow may improve, and plausibly empty arguments about officiating bias are reduced.
But it’s not without cost. The NHL rule book almost feels mythological at this point – a general guide to what constitutes a penalty, but not one seriously employed in practice. And because of that, the integrity of the rule book comes under fire, and so too do the officials in their futile attempts to enforce the rules on the ice.
This is a highly complex problem for the league, one that will invariably rise again to the Board of Governors level. Maybe the answer will still be that implied fairness is the single most important factor to maintain. It’s unfortunately coming at the cost of the rule book itself, which seems headed for a reckoning.
Data via FiveThirtyEight, NHL.com, Hockey Reference
TORONTO – Reigning PWHL MVP and scoring champ Natalie Spooner will miss the start of the regular season for the Toronto Sceptres, general manager Gina Kingsbury announced Tuesday on the first day of training camp.
The 33-year-old Spooner had knee surgery on her left anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) after she was checked into the boards by Minnesota’s Grace Zumwinkle in Game 3 of their best-of-five semifinal series on May 13.
She had a goal and an assist in three playoff games but did not finish the series. Toronto was up 2-1 in the semifinal at that time and eventually fell 3-2 in the series.
Spooner led the PWHL with 27 points in 24 games. Her 20 goals, including five game-winners, were nine more than the closest skater.
Kingsbury said there is no timeline, as the team wants the Toronto native at 100 per cent, but added that “she is doing really well” in her recovery.
The Sceptres open the PWHL season on Nov. 30 when they host the Boston Fleet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — A top official of the Pakistan Cricket Board declined Friday to confirm media reports that India has decided against playing any games in host Pakistan during next year’s Champions Trophy.
“My view is if there’s any problems, they (India) should tell us in writing,” PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi told reporters in Lahore. “I’ll share that with the media as well as with the government as soon as I get such a letter.”
Indian media reported Friday that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has communicated its concerns to all the Champions Trophy stakeholders, including the PCB, over the Feb. 19-March 9 tournament and would not play in arch-rival Pakistan.
The Times of India said that “Dubai is a strong candidate to host the fixtures involving the Men in Blue” for the 50-over tournament.
Such a solution would see Pakistan having to travel to a neutral venue to play India in a group match, with another potential meeting later in the tournament if both teams advanced from their group. The final is scheduled for March 9 in Pakistan with the specific venue not yet decided.
“Our stance is clear,” Naqvi said. “They need to give us in writing any objections they may have. Until now, no discussion of the hybrid model has happened, nor are we prepared to accept one.”
Political tensions have stopped bilateral cricket between the two nations since 2008 and they have competed in only multi-nation tournaments, including ICC World Cups.
“Cricket should be free of politics,” Naqvi said. “Any sport should not be entangled with politics. Our preparations for the Champions Trophy will continue unabated, and this will be a successful event.”
The PCB has already spent millions of dollars on the upgrade of stadiums in Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi which are due to host 15 Champions Trophy games. Naqvi hoped all the three stadiums will be ready over the next two months.
“Almost every country wants the Champions Trophy to be played here (in Pakistan),” Naqvi said. “I don’t think anyone should make this a political matter, and I don’t expect they will. I expect the tournament will be held at the home of the official hosts.”
Eight countries – Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, England, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Afghanistan – are due to compete in the tournament, the schedule of which is yet to be announced by the International Cricket Council.
“Normally the ICC announces the schedule of any major tournament 100 days before the event, and I hope they will announce it very soon,” Naqvi said.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Ottawa‘s Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand are through to the doubles final at the WTA Finals after a 7-6 (7), 6-1 victory over Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the United States and Australia’s Ellen Perez in semifinal action Friday.
Dabrowski and Routliffe won a hard-fought first set against serve when Routliffe’s quick reaction at the net to defend a Perez shot gave the duo set point, causing Perez to throw down her racket in frustration.
The second seeds then cruised through the second set, winning match point on serve when Melichar-Martinez couldn’t handle Routliffe’s shot.
The showdown was a rematch of last year’s semifinal, which Melichar-Martinez and Perez won in a super tiebreak.
Dabrowski and Routliffe will face the winner of a match between Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend, and Hao-Ching Chan and Veronika Kudermetova in the final on Saturday.
Dabrowski is aiming to become the first Canadian to win a WTA Finals title.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
