Why Do The Rules Change In The Playoffs?

[jw2]

Playoffs just get way more attention but this has pretty much become the standard even in the regular season.

Interference was called 100% of the time in the 3-4 years after the lockout. The hockey was great then. Crosby/Ovechkin were must watch TV. Now pretty much every dman interferes with the forechecker. I guess the league decided to slow the game down to combat concussions. What is so pathetic is they never came out with a press release saying that they were going back to the old rules. They know how bad it would look to publicly come out and say that. Instead they just hoped that NHL fans/media would be too stupid to notice. Sadly, it appears they were right.

Hockey was not better after the lockout
Hence the change in calls

The game has been much faster the last few seasons.

 

[Darch]

So then what's the point here? Refs are incompetent bums and its even more noticeable in the playoffs where every game is critical.

They are not incompetent. They have been given directives by the NHL. It's sad, because it kills the game.

 

[sabresEH]

This is pretty short sighted and ignores technological advances and increased skill level of players entering the league

And to go along with that, the league has tinkered with the rules to appeal to casual fans and it has been a disaster every time.

Could you please elaborate as to what you mean? I don't see the correlation between the media talking about issues and increased skill level of players entering the league.

 

[Ducks DVM]

Hockey was not better after the lockout
Hence the change in calls

The game has been much faster the last few seasons.

The league actively made a decision to allow more interference back into the game to prevent the forwards being able to get in on the defensemen in an attempt to reduce injuries. One can have an opinion on whether the hockey being played was better after the lockout or now (for the record, I agree it was better post-lockout), but you're confusing a few teams having a large amount of fast players with the flow in every game being faster, which it absolutely is not. Chicago and Pittsburgh would have been easily putting up 10 goals per game with the post lockout rules, and that would be AFTER teams had figured out where the line had shifted and stopped getting penalized.

 

[Arturs Irbe]

They are not incompetent. They have been given directives by the NHL. It's sad, because it kills the game.

Agreed.