Nashville Predators: New Rules Mean New Opportunities

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The Nashville Predators have had a certain formula for success over the last few seasons. The concept is simple: all five guys on the ice will play offense.

With some tweaks to the NHL rulebook this season, look for the Nashville Predators to have a man advantage more often.

The National Hockey League (NHL) announced a few changes to their rulebook this off-season. The League is trying to capitalize on its already impressive viewing numbers. And scoring attracts more viewers than anything, whether it’s hockey or baseball. Football has changed the rule book many times to provide more offense. Basketball has taken any contact possible out of the game to produce more offense. Baseball has changed things such as the height of the pitching mound to produce more offense. Every sport seemingly needs more offense for fans to get excited. And the NHL is no different. So the NHL actually took action this summer and made some new rules.

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Offsides Review Brings a New Challenge For Coaches

The league decided to try to limit coaches challenging an offsides call. Basically, the rule now states if a coach challenges an offsides call and loses, his team will receive a two-minute minor. This is a great change. Why? Nashville Predators fans needn’t look any further than the Stanley Cup finals to see how this rule may have helped the team.

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In Game 1, P.K. Subban scored an early goal on the road. It would have been a huge momentum gainer for the Nashville Predators. However, Pittsburgh Penguins coach, Mike Sullivan, decided to throw the challenge flag (figuratively speaking of course). He believed the Predators entered the zone offside before scoring the goal. “Believed.” After a long review, and seemingly no visual evidence to suggest his intuition was correct, the referees determined Filip Forsberg lifted his skate a micrometer off of the ice before the puck crossed the blue line. Offsides!

Had the new rule been in place, Sullivan might not have challenged the call. It was way too close to tell. He most likely would not have risked the goal standing and then put his team on the penalty kill for losing the challenge. If that goal counted, who knows how the series would have turned out. I know, I know. Sour grapes, right?

In the end, the league recognized a problem with abuse of challenges. It has taken action to stop it. Kudos, NHL.

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Face-off Infraction

The way the rule, standing now and has always stood, states:

As per rule 76.4 in the NHL rulebook: When the face-off takes place at any of the nine face-off spots, the players taking part shall take their position so that they will stand squarely facing their opponent’s end of the rink, and clear of the ice markings (where applicable). The sticks of both players facing-off shall have the blade on the ice, within the designated white area. At the eight face-off spots (excluding center ice face-off spot), the defending player shall place his stick within the designated white area first followed immediately by the attacking player. When the face-off is conducted at the center ice face-off spot, the visiting player shall place his stick on the ice first.

This rule has been around for as long as I remember. Basically, the marks in the face-off circles are there for a reason. The skaters taking the face-off have to line up behind them. If they don’t, they get kicked out. Here’s where the new emphasis comes into play: If a team has two skaters kicked out on the same face-off attempt, that team gets a penalty.

It may seem like a minor issue but the referees have had no issue calling teams for it so far. Hopefully the Nashville Predators will take more power plays than they give.

Slashing

The final change is, like the face-off infraction, just an emphasis. It is not a new rule. The NHL wants more slashing calls. They want it to be easier for players, specifically the highly skilled players, to have fewer impediments before getting to the net. Stick-checking has always been one of those roadblocks.

defencemen, or anyone playing the man with the puck, use stick-checking as a way to put pressure on a skater. The more he can smack his stick on the opposing player, the less room that skater has to work with. It has always been done. As long as there is no sweeping tomahawk swinging of the stick, it has been legal. Well, not anymore. The League is cracking down. The referees are instructed to call more slashing penalties, as per George Parros.

Essentially, this new enforcement can be compared to when the NBA decided to eliminate the “hand-check” on defense. A defensive player can not reach out his hand to keep the offensive player from moving laterally. They can barely even breath on the opponent anymore. Fouls were called left and right. And so, the offense was given a major advantage because of this.

So, how has this played out in the NHL so far? Let’s dive in.

On Ice Results

The Nashville Predators have played two preseason games so far under these “new rules.” In those two games, they amassed 31 penalty minutes throughout 13 penalty kills. They allowed 4 goals for an abysmal 69% penalty kill. Thankfully, it is only the preseason. And we can expect a much better performance as the preseason and year go on. However, the refs showed they were going to call things tighter. Especially for slashing.

It is easy to see a trending growing if we look at the rest of the league. Mark Spector of Sportsnet broke down the penalties from all of the preseason games played this past Monday. In all, there were 46 slashing or face-off infraction penalties called. That was from just six games! Of those 46 penalties, 37 of them were for slashing. That is an alarming average of over six slashing calls per game. Six. I can’t remember ever seeing a single game with six slashing calls. And here, every game averaged six. But what does it all mean?

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What It All Means

So, as I have labored through all of this, what is the point? The point is this: the NHL wants more offense. More offense means more fans in the seats. I don’t need to tell you what that means to the NHL. Hint, it’s more money. The easiest way to create more offense is to have more power plays. That is why you will see a new “emphasis” on these long-standing rules.

After the Lockout season of 2005-2006, the NHL did the exact same thing. They wanted more offense. They wanted more fans to be excited about the game. So, they created more offense. Their efforts resulted in the average penalties per game increasing by three. Additionally, the league averaged over one more goal per game than the previous year. They hope to have a similar result this season.

So, How does this help the Predators?

The Nashville Predators have been in the top half of the league in both Power Play% (PP%) and Penalty Kill% (PK%) over the last two seasons. The Predators’ team structure is perfect for a good PP%. They have a highly skilled forward group. The offense doesn’t stop there, though. They have one of the highest scoring defenses in the league. When you combine those two, you have a powerful set of five men on the ice at any given time. That is especially true when they have a man-advantage.

Next: The Predators Will Lead NHL in Power Play Goals

Look for the Predators to take advantage of their extra opportunities on the Power Play this season. They definitely are going to have them.

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