Players spending less time in the sin bin
Bill Chow may believe the Junior A Supplement is responsible for a decrease in penalty minutes in the SJHL, but even he didn’t see a penalty-free game coming.
The La Ronge Ice Wolves and Estevan Bruins weren’t called for an infraction by referee Graig Whitehead last Saturday in Estevan, where La Ronge prevailed 6-3.
“I was at that game,” Chow, the SJHL’s president, says with a chuckle. “Fans were complaining that the ref put his whistle in his pocket. But I told them, ‘Hey, he called it the same way for both teams.’ ”
The league’s 12 clubs are being assessed fewer penalty minutes this season — the average per game entering Friday’s action was 36.6, down from 40.9 last season and 41.9 in the 2011-12 campaign — and Chow says the decrease “is specifically because of the Junior A Supplement.”
The document, implemented by Hockey Canada, applies to all of the junior A leagues across the country.
“PLAYERS ARE WELLEDUCATED AS TO WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN IF THEY’RE REPEAT OFFENDERS. THEY WON’T BE PLAYING — AND, OF COURSE, EVERY PLAYER WANTS TO PLAY.”
BILL CHOW
It lays out the punishment players and teams can expect for infractions such as hits to the head, checking from behind and goaltender interference, and sets out supplementary discipline for accumulated majors, misconducts and game misconducts.
“(Those penalties) are all down,” Chow says. “Players are well-educated as to what’s going to happen if they’re repeat offenders. They won’t be playing — and, of course, every player wants to play.”
With those infractions seemingly in check, penalty minutes are dropping. But Ice Wolves head coach and general manager Bob Beatty isn’t sure the supplement is the reason.
“We have to be conscious of accumulations in certain areas, but it’s not something we emphasize in our pre-game meetings,” Beatty says. “Other than saying, ‘We’ve got to stay out of the box,’ we don’t say, ‘Don’t finish your checks.’
“But we do have to talk to players about fighting majors and misconducts. We have to make sure everybody is aware of the consequences.”
That said, Beatty doesn’t think the supplement has changed the way teams are assembled.
“The days are long gone when you can build the Philadelphia Flyers of the ’70s and expect to win,” he says with a laugh.
“I don’t think (the supplement) affects recruiting. Everybody still wants players who have that willingness to be tough because everybody wants to be a tough team to play against.”
Keith Cassidy isn’t so sure that the supplement hasn’t changed things on the recruiting front.
In fact, the Bruins’ head coachGM admits he made “a determined effort” after the rules were changed to make sure everyone on his team’s roster could contribute on the ice.
“With the supplement, you can’t afford to have anybody on your roster who can’t play hockey,” Cassidy says. “If there are going to be altercations in a game, they’re going to be heat-of-themoment things, which is what (league operators) want.
“The accumulation of misconducts is something guys are aware of. It gets rid of the gratuitous stupidity that was happening.”
Entering Friday’s games, seven teams were averaging under 18 minutes in penalties per game. Last season, no teams finished under 18 minutes per game.
Estevan was averaging 17.3 penalty minutes per contest before Friday and La Ronge was at 17.9 — numbers that no doubt dropped as a result of last Saturday’s clean slate.
“You would hope it was a case where it was a cleanly played game, but I wouldn’t say that was the case,” says Cassidy, who had never before been involved in a penalty-free game. “(Whitehead) just wasn’t motivated to call something.”
Beatty disagrees — and even offers kudos to Whitehead for not calling anything and for avoiding the urge to penalize someone just for the sake of calling something.
“I thought the game was wellofficiated,” says Beatty, who estimates he has been in “a few” penalty-free games in his career. “It wasn’t a chippy game and it had a decent pace to it.
“It was just one of those games. There could have been a couple of penalties on each team, but there really was nothing significant ... I never said, ‘C’mon, call something!’ ”
ihamilton@leaderpost.com