In the first playoffs since the NHL’s lost season, a key issue is whether the league’s heightened vigilance and tougher officiating standards will be enforced – or whether the men in stripes will back off, making allowances for the increased stakes and emotion of the postseason.
San Jose coach Ron Wilson hopes not.
The Sharks have been one of the best teams in the league since Dec. 1, thanks to the Nov. 30 trade that brought Joe Thornton from Boston and because they were disciplined. They have a knack of leaving the opposition grousing after games in which the calls weren’t even.
“The way the hockey’s been, and you add the playoff intensity, I think this could be one of the best playoffs of all time,” Wilson said during the Sharks’ last appearance April 5 in Denver.
He added, “Every other year, you would think the players would have learned to play by now and that the penalties would have dropped. They haven’t. The number of power plays for our team is exactly the same this month as they were in the first month of the season. That has not changed one iota. I’ve been told by (director of officiating) Stephen Walkom that it isn’t going to change.
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“They’re going to have to do some lobbying with some other officials whose natural tendencies are to be, ‘We don’t want to decide it.’ My theory is that by deciding not to decide, you can decide it. Why do we allow cheating? Why is that encouraged in our sport? Whether it’s goalies’ equipment or curved sticks, you’re encouraged to cheat because you’re also told that you shouldn’t challenge somebody’s stick or someone’s pad because that’s a cheap way to do things.”
In Edmonton this week, Oilers coach Craig MacTavish is looking ahead to a first-round matchup with talent-laden Detroit. His frame of reference is his run as an Oilers’ player from 1985-1994, when he played on three Stanley Cup champions.
“The thing we worry about more than anything is the consistency from team to team,” MacTavish said. He said the 1980s Oilers “used to get the benefit of the doubt in the calls.
“I feel like Detroit’s in that situation right now. If we put an arm on (Pavel) Datsyuk, it’s going to be called. If they put an arm – or maybe two arms and a stick – on (Edmonton’s Georges) Laraque, it might not be called. Our sense is we want the stand to be consistent with both teams regardless of the names on the sweaters.
“I think the mantra we’ve heard all year is that the last thing they want to do is back off the stand they’ve pretty much taken throughout the year.”
Oilers veteran center Michael Peca, who made a name for himself as one of the league’s best defensive forwards in what arguably was a different game, thought some referees were on “auditions” to get in the playoffs.
“I think they know that to do that and to move on, they have to carry through on the calls they made all year long,” Peca said.
“You’ve seen in the past some of the veteran referees kind of let the game play itself out and kind of let the guys decide the winner.
“Sometimes now, they won’t get the assignments. I’m sure both the younger, inexperienced guys, as well as the experienced guys, will be calling everything.”
Terry Frei can be reached at 303-820-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com.
