NHL teams have had 747 fewer powerplay opportunities year-over-year.

[Brookbank]

That is 12% less.

Maybe this is the reason why star players like McDavid and Mathews have seen their numbers go down this year. And to a lesser extent Petterson. Most star players are PP merchants. That's just how the league works.

 

[Rodgerwilco]

Surely it’s because every player in the league is playing more safely and responsibly due to the effectiveness and competence of the Department of Player Safety.

 

[1989]

Fairly certain it's because they know about HFBoards' recent outages and so the refs and DoPS don't want to needlessly manufacture fan outrage if there's nowhere relevant to post it online for clicks.

 

[Team_Spirit]

Refs get caught up in their game management bs and put the whistle away until it evens out

 

[Machinehead]

We're back to inference pretty much being legal.

Also, scoring is a tad bit down and a lot of referees just call the game to reward scoring chances. If the attacker gets ahead of his man, they look for something to call.

 

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

Refs get caught up in their game management bs and put the whistle away until it evens out

This, or when there’s 5 minutes left, or it’s OT- they don’t want to “impact the game”, which is f***in dumb because allowing dudes to break rules does exactly that.

 

[PatriceBergeronFan]

Game management worse than ever with gambling era.

 

[Bounces R Way]

Somebody saw Zach Hyman scoring 50G last year and said nahhhh chief that ain't it

 

[jigglysquishy]

Time is a flat circle.

We are experiencing 2009 hockey again.

 

[AvroArrow]

Interesting, the Leafs had 238 powerplays last year, 2.9 per game

So far this year we have 186, 2.2 per game, about a 25% decrease up to this point

I had no idea there was that big of a drop off in powerplays. Oddly I feel like officiating has actually been better this year vs last.

 

[TLEH]

We're back to inference pretty much being legal.

Also, scoring is a tad bit down and a lot of referees just call the game to reward scoring chances. If the attacker gets ahead of his man, they look for something to call.

Yeah couldn't agree more. The "lane manipulation" or whatever you want to call it on dump and chase plays is out of f***ing control.

 

[Machinehead]

Yeah couldn't agree more. The "lane manipulation" or whatever you want to call it on dump and chase plays is out of f***ing control.

Right, you can just get in front of a guy and foul him to kingdom come as long as you're in front of him. If he gets a step, you're not even allowed to look at him.

They manage scoring chances more so than they call a rulebook.

 

[SannywithoutCompy]

The NHL has like a 10 year cycle of making itself entertaining, then letting referees get on their bullshit until there's a dead puck era, and then calling stuff and being entertaining again. Feels like that's been the case for 30 years or so now.

Early-mid 90s - high scoring, entertaining.
Late 90s, early 2000s - clutch and grab hockey, brutal
Mid 2000s - called powerplays, entertaining
Early-mid 2010s - on their bullshit again, scoring drops

We had a few good years there but they're getting back on their bullshit again.

 

[voyageur]

Once the Jets had the top PP in the league their opportunities went down to 1 per game, sometimes less. They deserve some of the credit for this, which knocked them off their 4 goal per game pace.

The standard of officiating will always come into question. With any professional sport.

Is scoring up or down in the league in this time period?

 

[Video Nasty]

The NHL has like a 10 year cycle of making itself entertaining, then letting referees get on their bullshit until there's a dead puck era, and then calling stuff and being entertaining again. Feels like that's been the case for 30 years or so now.

Early-mid 90s - high scoring, entertaining.
Late 90s, early 2000s - clutch and grab hockey, brutal
Mid 2000s - called powerplays, entertaining
Early-mid 2010s - on their bullshit again, scoring drops

We had a few good years there but they're getting back on their bullshit again.

Great post. Truly the dumbest league in sports and part of the reason they’re dead last against other sports and always will be.

I’m not asking to make the numbers completely meaningless like the NFL has done to all passing stats and the NBA completely rewriting the triple double record book, but is it too much to ask the NHL not to slide into yet another DPE after a handful of entertaining years?

 

[blueinbigd]

This is the dump nd chase you dump it in and another player on your team goes after the puck
If all you have to do is skate with the puck shoot it down the ice and not have to worry about getting interfered with why bother trying to stickhandle around the player.
I have seen very few of those calls this year and am glad of it
The call I hate is when a player deflects a pass and then he gets interfered with and they call it interference
What if instead of deflecting the pass he actually intercepts the pass and the puck is on his stick and he gets interfered with you certainly wouldn't call that interference
I dont see refs calling as many boarding calls
Playerss turning into the boards and getting hit from behind either trying to draw a call or making a play with the puck

 

[bambamcam4ever]

Time is a flat circle.

We are experiencing 2009 hockey again.

2009 was good hockey though, and not full of interference excluding Detroit games

 

[MikeyMike01]

I prefer fewer penalties