Yeah, I don’t know what is the chicken and what’s the egg here, but man I’d love to get to the point where refs don’t even things up and fans don’t expect things to be evened up.
Seems like the NFL is the only league that’s truly like “took 9 penalties for 110 yards? Sounds like that’s on you bucko.” Even basketball has some level of evening up, but not nearly as bad as the NHL. To the point where both players and Tripp were just flat out saying “you gotta think the refs will give the Canes a powerplay in the third here.”
Here’s my working theory on the Canes and their penalty issues. Penalties happen, more often than not, on the puck carrier. Carolina’s whole offense is based on not being the puck carrier (dump and chase, heavy forecheck). All of their puck “carrying” happens in the corners, where everyone is aware there’s going to be a bit more leeway when it comes to clutching and grabbing. So the whole lean of the offensive system doesn’t inherently lead to doing the types of things that draw a large portion of the penalties in the game.
Meanwhile, defensively… it’s a man to man system. Which has a lot of benefits when played well, but what’s the drawback? If you lose your man, you’re screwed. You’ve got no help. So what’s your recourse? Probably more than other defensive systems where you’d have more help, you’ve gotta take a penalty.
The disparity being something about the way the Canes play has always sat better with me than “the refs, when they all go home to the same ref house they all live in and are drinking beer together after their games bitch about Rod and his mean words and have collectively decided he doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt on anything.” The above is the best I’ve got.
