NHL Rules and Rule Changes 1926-27 to 1966-67 Assists

[Canadiens1958]

This thread will look at NHL rules and rule changes governing assists. Again thanks to Volume 2 of The Trail of the Stanley Cup for getting the thread started. Unfortunately we do not have access to the league directives, interprétations and in season changes.

1931-32 season page 136. after defining an assist the following qualifier was added. "An assist may not be credited however to a player unless the act of assistance took place within the defending zone of the opposing team. If a goal scored from a rebound from a goaltender or from any part of the goal, credit for an assist shall be given to the player whose shot caused such rebound."

Effectively, any pass( first pass, transition pass, lead pass etc) originating in the defensive or neutral zones was not eligible to be an assist.

This reduced the assists awarded first/pass transition defensemen and forwards capable of lead passes or head manning the puck. Also there seems to have been a limit of one assist on goals scored from a qualified rebound. Rebounds of the backboards, glass or mesh, opposing players did not seem to qualify for assists. Ironically it seems that long shots from the defensive or neutral zone if misplayed by the goalie, produced a rebound resulting in a goal then an assist would be awarded.

1933-34 season page 197 When a goal is scored an assist shall be credited to anyplayer taking part in the play leading up to the scoring of the goal,provided that no player from the opposing side shall have touched the puck during the course of such play. An assist cannot be credited to any player when a goal is scored from a rebound off a goalkeeper."

So even the slightest touch of the puck by an opposing player would nullify assists.
Rebound assists from goalkeeper rebounds disappeared.

The lost assist seem to have been replaced by allowing assists on passes from the defensive or neutral zone and all other rebounds.

1936-37 Assists were limited to two per goal. Limited research has failed to find a scoring play with more than two assists.

1937-38 season page 315 " When a player scores a goal, an assist shall be credited to any player taking part in the play leading up to to the scoring of the goal provided that such play takes place only in the half of the rink nearest the goal scored on and provided no player on the opposing side shall have touched the puckduring the course of such play.Not more than two assists can be given on any one play.An assist may be credited to a player if a goal shall have been scored of a rebound from a goalkeeper."

So the full rink was no longer in play for assists only the offensive half. given that the Red Line had not been introduced this could be somewhat problematic. The rebound assist from a goalkeeper was brought back but it was optional. May be credited not must be credited.

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[tarheelhockey]

Just wanted to add that I found a direct reference in 1930 (the February 5th Calgary Herald, “Lessons in Hockey” syndicated feature which quotes Chicago’s Tommy Cook) to the rule that only passes made in the offensive zone are eligible to be assists. So the definition above from 1931-32 stretches back to at least 1929-30.

Multiple assists on a goal were very rare in this era, so it’s noteworthy that one week later, the NYR/Maroons game on Feb 11 1930 featured two different goals with two assists each. The NY Times summary, which seems to be the basis for most papers’ syndicated copy, shows it happening on back-to-back goals in the third period:
9:41 Rangers, Bill Cook (Bun Cook, F. Boucher)
10:41 Maroons, Smith (Stewart, Siebert)

The NYT narrative explicitly mentions that Cook received assists from both his brother and Boucher on “a pretty play”. The Montreal Gazette‘s box score doesn’t show any assists at all in this game, but the narrative provides a nice picture of how these plays developed:

“Frankie Boucher, Rangers’ great play-making center, and the brothers Cook, carried the New Yorkers along last night... Both Ranger goals were the result of brilliant pieces of combination. Passing like a well-trained basketball machine, the three elusive New York forwards manoeuvered into position for dead on shots at Walsh. Their timing on these plays was uncanny and the pass was always on the stick of the player for which it was intended.”

The underlined phrase may provide some insight into what distinguished a two-assist goal. This was the first season of forward passing in the offensive zone, and historically there had been a sharp distinction between offensive strategy in hockey versus basketball/lacrosse. It seems the Rangers were blurring those lines, the implication of the basketball analogy being that they were using quick-hitting, possibly “set” passing plays to pick apart the defense (rather than just swooping down and looking for lanes impromptu).

The Gazette also mentions that the Maroons responded in kind, rolling out a strategy of “new combinations” (new passing plays), “an innovation that was as effective as it was novel” and specifically picking on Leo Reise who was newly acquired by the Rangers to replace an injured Ching Johnson. That may explain why, as soon as Cook’s pretty goal tied the game, one minute later we have the Maroons picking the Rangers D apart with a similar play to re-take the lead.

I don’t know whether refs were responsible for calling assists in this era. If it matters, the refs in this game were Cy Denneny and Jerry Goodman. The former was definitely in his first year as an NHL referee and I can’t find reference to the latter in any earlier season, so it’s possible they have have been coming from a different frame of reference than some of their more senior peers.

 

[Sanf]

There was a lot of talk about rules being too lenient during 1934 to 1936. As many know there were even a four assist goal during another of those seasons. Even though rebound assists were forbidden by the rule those were often counted. By todays standards it´s hard to say how lenient they were. For example when Tiny Thompson had NHL history´s first goalie assist originally he was given two in that game. In other he passed the puck to Shore who passed to Siebert who scored. That was later cut by the scorer.

Opinion from Andy Lytle (Toronto Star). Published in Leader-Post. It isn´t such a new thing to talk points from referees.

The Leader-Post
25 January 1935
"I insists, gentlemen with millions involved while I don´t hold even one useless share of common stock, that your system of scoring assist is as loose as the char-lady´s apron after a night of scrubbing toil."

"Additionally, the sight of players rushing to surround referee and official scorer is one that might be expected on hockey cushions but not in ornate palaces dedicated to the improvment of the bree of hockey player."

"Your assist rule gentlemen, looks to me like a thoughtless hangover after a night of wheezy indulgence in which words were spilled over 17 pages of your rules brochure.

"When a player scores a goal." this hangover recites in black type, "an assists shall be credited to any player taking part in the play..."

"This is as flexible as Wrigley´s most noted product and can be twisted in more ways than a youngster´s tongue snapping his gum."

"In Detroit recently I saw a player shoot at goal. The puck rebounded, was pushed away by a defender, caught up by an attacker other than the original marksman, passed to a third attacker, yet all three figured next day in the assist brackets!"

"Last week, in Montreal, nearly every player on the Leaf squad surrounded the referee begging for assists, and chased him to the scorer where the debate became even hotter."

"MORE importantly, I should say, it makes scoring records almost as valueless as the baseball business of releasing batting and fielding averages in mid-winter, obviously a cheap bid for off-season publicity."