Hockey Discipline – who is responsible

IMPORTANT NOTE:

This piece is not expressing the opinions, thoughts of every one. It is simply our own opinion, and expression what we think. There is no right or wrong answer. If you feel strongly to agree or disagree happy to see you making a comment in our comments section, or send us a tweet to @LOThunderhockey.

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Following all the games across the AIHL one thing is obviously clear. This league is not the cleanest when it comes to playing 5 on 5 hockey. Now, before you all go throw up in arms over that, remember it’s an opinion of ONE league not all the leagues. We are only focusing on the Australian League first. We’ve certainly seen plenty of penalties in the NHL too and many fans have felt one teams gets nit picked too. Anyway back to the AIHL; it’s certain bet every few minutes someone is gonna get called for a penalty. Not even a bet more times than not its like an insurance.

So; why is this the case? Why does it feel like players spend more time sitting in the naughty box more often then their own bench? How is it so many power players are being optioned? Is there a genuine lack of discipline among the playing group? Are they just not well coached? Or, can we put the square firmly on the officials?

Players discipline particularly at AIHL level seems way out of whack. Too often we’re seeing players sitting in the penalty box. There was a joke on twitter quite recently during the Mustangs v North Stars games about how the Newcastle bench was basically empty and the penalty box was full! While it was a great chuckle it has raised some concerns. Looking at just the first game of the year between the Melbourne Ice and Sydney Ice Dogs. There was a total of 18 penalties amounting to 36 PIM. There was a mix of high sticks, delay of games, roughs, interference and hooks.

In the second game, between Canberra Brave and Newcastle North Stars the total PIM was 166. There were misconducts, roughing, checks from behind..etc.

And that’s just the first two games of the year. We haven’t even gone through the rest of the games up until today!

So then, looking at it, there are two areas which need to be assessed; Player Discipline and Officials and Interpretation and we look at them below:

First of all, we cannot doubt for a second players are always pushing the envelope. They will always look to find an edge somewhere, trying to get under their opponents skin to upset their play and cause they to get unsettled. It is not an uncommon method to go to such lengths. Players are always going to find way; legal or not to agitate their opponent. However; in doing so there is also a certain line they need to remember not to cross. As much as upsetting an opponent can give an advantage, players must not ever go to the point of intending to injure the other player, be it by accident or on purpose and have to be responsible for their own actions. NHL commentators have made the mention before re: Players needing to make decisions in there own zone’. One should never take a bad penalty; although there is such a thing as taking a good penalty too. Still, a player needs to be responsible. He should never let a little moment rile him to the point where by he lets his emotions get the better of him (and yes it is easy to say but not so easy to do of course in the heat of the moment). No player can claim being innocent every time they are called for a penalty because at some point they are guilty of it and they have to acknowledge it was their responsibility to not commit it.

Secondly; the officials are there to enforce the rules. They maintain part of the discipline, keep the game moving ann ensure players know their boundaries. However; are these officials really doing the job properly? Sometimes they’ve been known to miss potential penalties, while calling on what you could consider ‘invisible’ penalties like they found one out of nowhere! Case in point, a few weeks ago when during a Mustangs game one of the players was called for tripping when every including replays showed the opposition player tripped over of his own accord; but because of the close vicinity of the Mustang player it was, we can only assumed deemed to be a penalty. Watching a replay of a Red Wings game from this season, a similar situation occurred when a Detroit player was called for interference when it didn’t appear like anything close to one; but due to the way the players were during action the referee called it the way he saw it. So this brings us to another point; there is reefing to the latter of the law and there is the interpretation of a rule when enforcing it. Perhaps this is where the problem is from an officials stand point. Interpretation. What should constitute a genuine penalty? Will every player collision be deemed interference / tripping. Is every whack with the stick in the hand area slashing / hooking / high stick…etc?  Can a player who goes deep in the corner claim to get an elbow to the face? Obviously there is guidelines for what should and shouldn’t be called and like any sport this rule is not really black and white it’s just a grey blog of mud.

Whatever the case and problems we’ve highlighted there is little doubt in our minds both areas need clearing up. It will never be a case of no penalties because, frankly penalties will happen. But it would be good to see some responsibility on both ends of the ice, from the players and form the officials and how they read it. It is easy for us, as fans to blame the officials when our teams are involved and we want to see them win; but what we don’t want to see is penalties defining a game because one of the two parties is not on the same page. If this cuts down in the AIHL you’ll find the pace of the game picks up, the referees don’t get whittle-blowing happy and players are allowed to jostle and do whatever it takes to be the best, while still being accountable for their actions.

Be interesting to see how it unfolds during the AIHL Finals at the end of August. Remember, what we’ve written is based on our own opinion, only so don’t take it as one view. No doubt this will be something we will be discussing again soon!