Hockey is an honest game, or is it? - The Boston Globe
And anyway, hockey’s an honest game, right? All that free-flowing action makes it hard to cheat. It’s a game of quick thinking, not sign stealing. A playbook isn’t much help when Connor McDavid is racing toward you, or David Pastrnak is lining up a slapper. You can’t deflate solid rubber, and if anyone’s banging on a trash can, it’s an overserved fan.
Honest game, right? Not quite.
“I played with an illegal stick my entire career,” offered NESN analyst Andy Brickley.
Brickley, who spent four of his 11 NHL seasons in Boston, wasn’t the only one with a blatant disregard for the NHL’s blade curvature rules (no more than three-quarters of an inch). All players have their name stamped on the top of the stick, and Brickley would tell his apart by circling the “LE” in his surname — for “legal.” His tempting fate only went so far. In the final minutes of a game, or when he was killing a penalty, he would swap his illicit model for something less banana-hooky, to avoid attention.
As it relates to state secrets, there aren’t many Belichickian coaches in the NHL. Bruce Cassidy, one of the league’s more open books, said last summer he divulged to another team’s assistant coach, a longtime friend, how the Bruins teach their defensive-zone coverage. After Columbus swept Tampa Bay in the first round of the playoffs, Cassidy also checked in with Lightning coach Jon Cooper, who was willing to give his take on the Bruins’ second-round opponent.
“I would do the same for certain coaches. Other guys didn’t that I called,” Cassidy said. “So I think you develop that friendship and which guys are more guarded and which aren’t, you figure it out and off you go.”
From Sports Illustrated: In the 1996 playoffs, when TV timeouts were called by a network producer and not by the league (they now come at the first stoppage after 6:00, 10:00, and 14:00 of a period), the Maple Leafs had a sympathetic broadcaster move his soda cup to the edge of the booth whenever the producer signaled that a TV timeout was imminent. A Toronto staffer in the next booth would radio down to the bench. That allowed the Leafs to ice their best line, knowing it could rest during the timeout. The cup trick didn’t bring the Leafs the Cup. They lost in the first round.
Former Red Wings coach Scotty Bowman was the Red Auerbach of his time. According to a St. Louis Post-Dispatch story from 1998, the Blues were hardly thankful that the Wings painted their locker room before Game 5 of their first-round series the two previous years. The Denver Post reported the Avalanche smelled “noxious fumes” in the visiting room in the 1996 Western Conference finals, and their new replacement bench was a few cheeks shorter than usual.
There’s diving and delaying, which takes many forms. Montreal coach Jacques Lemaire was known to toss a coin on the ice if his team was gassed. Tired players test officials’ patience by slowly reporting to the faceoff circle, and goalies can “accidentally” knock the net off its moorings to get a breather during a frenzied stretch of play. In last year’s Boston-Columbus playoff series, Brad Marchand stepped on Cam Atkinson’s stick and cracked it. Had an official noticed, he could have handed Marchand a delay of game penalty..........
And anyway, hockey’s an honest game, right? All that free-flowing action makes it hard to cheat. It’s a game of quick thinking, not sign stealing. A playbook isn’t much help when Connor McDavid is racing toward you, or David Pastrnak is lining up a slapper. You can’t deflate solid rubber, and if anyone’s banging on a trash can, it’s an overserved fan.
Honest game, right? Not quite.
“I played with an illegal stick my entire career,” offered NESN analyst Andy Brickley.
Brickley, who spent four of his 11 NHL seasons in Boston, wasn’t the only one with a blatant disregard for the NHL’s blade curvature rules (no more than three-quarters of an inch). All players have their name stamped on the top of the stick, and Brickley would tell his apart by circling the “LE” in his surname — for “legal.” His tempting fate only went so far. In the final minutes of a game, or when he was killing a penalty, he would swap his illicit model for something less banana-hooky, to avoid attention.
As it relates to state secrets, there aren’t many Belichickian coaches in the NHL. Bruce Cassidy, one of the league’s more open books, said last summer he divulged to another team’s assistant coach, a longtime friend, how the Bruins teach their defensive-zone coverage. After Columbus swept Tampa Bay in the first round of the playoffs, Cassidy also checked in with Lightning coach Jon Cooper, who was willing to give his take on the Bruins’ second-round opponent.
“I would do the same for certain coaches. Other guys didn’t that I called,” Cassidy said. “So I think you develop that friendship and which guys are more guarded and which aren’t, you figure it out and off you go.”
From Sports Illustrated: In the 1996 playoffs, when TV timeouts were called by a network producer and not by the league (they now come at the first stoppage after 6:00, 10:00, and 14:00 of a period), the Maple Leafs had a sympathetic broadcaster move his soda cup to the edge of the booth whenever the producer signaled that a TV timeout was imminent. A Toronto staffer in the next booth would radio down to the bench. That allowed the Leafs to ice their best line, knowing it could rest during the timeout. The cup trick didn’t bring the Leafs the Cup. They lost in the first round.
Former Red Wings coach Scotty Bowman was the Red Auerbach of his time. According to a St. Louis Post-Dispatch story from 1998, the Blues were hardly thankful that the Wings painted their locker room before Game 5 of their first-round series the two previous years. The Denver Post reported the Avalanche smelled “noxious fumes” in the visiting room in the 1996 Western Conference finals, and their new replacement bench was a few cheeks shorter than usual.
There’s diving and delaying, which takes many forms. Montreal coach Jacques Lemaire was known to toss a coin on the ice if his team was gassed. Tired players test officials’ patience by slowly reporting to the faceoff circle, and goalies can “accidentally” knock the net off its moorings to get a breather during a frenzied stretch of play. In last year’s Boston-Columbus playoff series, Brad Marchand stepped on Cam Atkinson’s stick and cracked it. Had an official noticed, he could have handed Marchand a delay of game penalty..........
