Referee Paul Devorski says he plans to keep his whistle firmly pursed between his lips when the Stanley Cup playoffs get underway tonight with four quarterfinal matchups. Brad Richards of the Tampa Bay Lightning says he'll believe it when he sees — or rather, hears — it.
"No one really knows how they are going to call it; even them, I don't know if they know," Richards said. "It's going to be interesting. We'll see what happens. It's a total unknown."
Richards and dozens of other skilled players who saw their offensive statistics soar as a result of the officials' crackdown on obstruction fouls during the regular season find out whether the stricter interpretation extends to the playoffs, a time when referees have traditionally "let the boys play."
Stephen Walkom, the NHL's director of officiating, said he's warned referees about putting away their whistles.
"I think we've done a good job of maintaining the standard throughout the season, and I expect them to do the same thing right through to the Stanley Cup finals," Walkom said by telephone from his Toronto office. "It absolutely gets harder (in the playoffs). It's going to take some real courage."
The officials' get-tough approach to the clutching and grabbing that had threatened to drag down the game was announced during the NHL's emergence from the lockout that wiped out the 2004-05 season. League officials hoped it would lead to increased scoring — and excitement — and help lure back disenchanted fans.
At first, the crackdown was greeted with skepticism. Players and coaches had heard it all before, seen referees lay down the law in October and November only to let the same infractions slide after Christmas. But this season they didn't back off.
"Throughout the season we were expecting the calls to go down, the referees to stop calling the new rules," said Buffalo center Daniel Briere, whose speedy Sabres perhaps benefited more than any other team. "They kept it going all year."
It worked.
Goals per game spiked to 6.17, up more than a goal from 5.14 in 2003-04. Seven players tallied 100 or more points compared to Martin St. Louis's league-leading 94 the previous season. And only the last-place St. Louis Blues failed to score 200 goals.
Much of the increase was the result of the higher number of power plays.
"What I say to people who say they are tired of all these penalties that are being called, I say you must be tired of watching all these guys score 50 goals," said Devorski, a 16-year veteran. "Look at (Washington Capitals rookie Alex) Ovechkin. Come on. People don't want to watch Washington. They want to watch Ovechkin. He's a superstar. Could you imagine if there were three guys hanging all over him? He probably wouldn't have gotten off half of the shots he did.
"I'm under the impression that if it doesn't hold up, the guys who don't call it won't be going on further in the playoffs. If I decided I don't want to call it one night, I'm going to hear about it the next day from the Toronto office. Those are the directions we've been given. We must continue on."
Still, some players have their doubts. Teemu Selanne, the Anaheim Might Ducks star winger, complained recently that referees had become more lax as teams scrapped for playoff positioning late in the regular season. Was it a precursor to the playoffs?
"I think the biggest problem with this league has been how much you can interfere with the guy who has no puck," Selanne told the Orange County Register last week after only four obstruction related infractions were whistled in his team's 3-0 loss to Calgary. "That's the key thing. If they let that slip away again, it's going to be the same mess."
Walkom brushed off Selanne's comments as playoff posturing.
"You come to expect a lot of posturing, trying to get an advantage," Walkom said. "I don't want our guys to worry about a player's comments, or a coach's comments or a GM's comments. I want them just work to the standard we've established.
"When you look at a single game, you have to look at it like this: Were there three or four or five tugs that were let go? Was there clutching and grabbing out there? Was it a rodeo out there? If the answer is yes, then we haven't done our job. If the answer is no, then the players had conformity."
Briere said that, for the sake of the game's credibility, the officials must not waver.
"I expect (the same) kind of treatment in the playoffs," Briere added. "For the good of the game, (everybody) expects the penalties to be called the same way."
