LAS VEGAS — It’s the confusion that the National Hockey League wallows in — shift after shift, head-scratching ruling after head-scratching ruling — that leaves us in search of some pattern. Any pattern.
Klim Kostin is allowed two, three crosschecks to Shea Theodore’s back without a call. He has mastered the threshold, and uses this knowledge as a weapon against Theodore’s back.
A frustrated Theodore fires back with a quick spear to the midsection, and the referee’s arm goes up. Because there’s no negotiating on a spear — except when the zebra turns on his mic and tells the world, “No. 27 Vegas. Two minutes for slashing.”
Whaaa … ?
We’ve got a solution, and we’ll get to it. But first, the latest Department of Player Safety impression of a three-toed sloth playing Jenga.
On Friday night in Vegas, both teams will be without their top minutes’ defencemen: Darnell Nurse for Edmonton, Alex Pietrangelo for the Golden Knights.
Nurse will sit because he answered Nicolas Hague’s request for a fight at the end of a shift rather than the beginning, “instigating” a scrap in which Hague was at such a disadvantage that he rained eight punches down on Nurse before the “instigator” threw even one.
Pietrangelo will pay an identical penance because he skated across the ice to target the Stanley Cup Playoffs’ most dangerous goal scorer, held his stick over his head like an axe for two or three seconds, and then brought it down on Leon Draisaitl’s forearms, the puck likely 40 to 60 feet away from the incident.
Golden Knights’ Pietrangelo slashes Draisaitl up high, goes after McDavid
Same thing?
Well, same suspension.
What’s offside? What the hell is goalie interference, anyhow?
Welcome to the NHL, where the longer you hang around, the more you realize you’re not the only one who doesn’t have a clue what the rule book means.
How come all those players who have jumped New York Rangers defenceman Jacob Trouba after one of his blow-up hits don’t automatically get an instigator penalty? Do you think Trouba is looking for a fight seconds after one of those collisions?
Of course he isn’t, but at the bottom end of this “game management” pyramid, the referees decide that it’s OK to force a player to fight after he has hit one of the non- instigator’s teammates.
On Thursday, that game management took place at the top, as head of NHL player safety George Parros evened up the Nurse and Pietrangelo suspensions as if a solid scrap between two willing combatants and a seldom-seen slash at the game’s top goal scorer are on a par with each other.
Look, I despise the instigator penalty altogether. It has not helped the game in the way it was intended, the designated fighter is extinct, and when it suddenly gets pulled out of the hat like some referee’s rabbit, it begs for inconsistency compared to the multitude of identical altercations we can easily cite.
There were 30 instigator penalties called this season, in 334 fights (668 fighting majors this season). Only two were assessed in the final five minutes of a game — to Max Domi and Luke Glendenning — but neither player was suspended.
Yet somehow Nurse, who has been spoiling for a fight with Hague — and vice versa — the entire series, became the lone suspension this season. Ah, the wicked ways of the Wheels of Justice …
“I think the instigator (in the final five minutes) was put in place to protect guys who didn’t want to fight, from guys who wanted to,” Nurse told reporters in Edmonton before the suspension was levied. “That wasn’t the case last night. He asked me multiple times to fight. It was two guys who wanted to fight.”
Had referees Chris Rooney and Graham Skilliter been around this series from the start, they’d have been aware of this brewing altercation when Game 4 began. They would have known that each player had asked the other to go, and that both were willing and ready combatants.
They would also know that the Golden Knights have struggled with Edmonton’s power play — and specifically Draisaitl on that unit. Eliminating Draisaitl could turn the series in their favour, while Nurse was a top-minutes defenceman fighting a third-pairing guy.
Would Pietrangelo have slashed Derek Ryan that way? No.
How will Pietrangelo’s suspension and igniting Oilers toughness affect series for Knights?
Is it different if Nurse beats up Theodore, or Jack Eichel? Yes.
Does Draisaitl need to be out for the series for DoPS to move the needle to two games, as quickly as it cemented that ridiculous instigator at one game?
So, the solution:
Same referees, all series.
Bring in three zebras at the start of the series, and like baseball, rotate them throughout. Trust them not to build up biases against individual players, and allow them to gain a feel for who wants to fight whom, and whose arm is most valuable when broken.
Let them live a series the way we do — fans, journalists — and allow the players to gain a feel for the game and how it is going to be officiated night after night.
No wonder every player in the league complains about inconsistency. You might not see the same ref for six weeks during the regular season.
As for Thursday’s ruling, it should have been zero games for Nurse, one for Pietrangelo.
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.
