Declining The Penalty Shot
Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s
The first NBC Game-of-the-Week this season featured the Penguins and the Rangers. During the second period, Sidney Crosby was hooked from behind, negating a good scoring opportunity. The referee gestures towards centre ice. There’s gonna be a showdown in Steel City.
Sidney Crosby one-on-one against Henrik Lundqvist. Two marquee players face-to-face. And on U.S. network television. This is what you want.
Or do you?
If one looks at it from a marketing angle, the answer is a resounding yes. Crosby is one of the young superstars of the National Hockey League. Lundqvist is one of the top goaltenders.
Often called “The Most Exciting Play In Hockey”, the penalty shot has lost some of its lustre with the implementation of the shootout. Even so, it’s still a relatively rare moment when a penalty shot is called.
In all the NHL games I’ve attended, it has only occurred twice. The first one was at Madison Square Garden, as the Rangers hosted the Detroit Red Wings in February 1987. Petr Klima took the shot against John Vanbiesbrouck. The joint was rocking as Klima lined up all alone at centre ice. It was hockey theatre at its finest. The decibel level rose even higher when The Beezer stoned Klima.
Second penalty shot I witnessed live was at Maple Leaf Gardens in the mid 90’s during a Leafs-Canadiens exhibition game. Joe Sacco took the shot, and I can’t recall who was in net for the Habs. Hey, it was an exhibition game. From what I do remember of that sleepy affair, the penalty shot was the highlight of the evening. Oh, Sacco didn’t score.
Last season, there were 64 penalty shots. Only 19 of them found the back of the net. Valterri Filppula of Detroit scored twice in a week; the first goal on Nashville’s Dan Ellis, the second against Florida’s Tomas Vokoun. Vincent Lecavalier also converted two penalty shots last season, albeit four-and-a-half months apart. Eric Staal also scored twice.
Lundqvist faced three penalty shots in the 2007-08 campaign, stopping Jordan Staal, but yielding goals to Lecavalier and Sergei Kostitsyn. He got the better of Crosby on this day, getting Sid the Kid to shoot the puck into his chest.
The Rangers were trailing 2-0 at the time of the penalty shot; could this have been a turning point? Not this time. The Penguins would score the next goal, and won the game 3-0.
Regardless, a penalty shot featuring two marquee players is notable. If Crosby had scored, the clip may even have made a few sports shows that don’t usually linger on hockey. The penalty shot is one of the signature events of the game of hockey. Unlike soccer, the goaltender has a reasonable shot at stopping the shot.
So it was intriguing when Pierre McGuire, working on the NBC telecast, suggested that coaches should have the option to decline the penalty shot, and take a two-minute powerplay instead. The reasoning was something to the effect that the penalty shot is only one chance, and as earlier discussed, arguably the odds favour the goaltender. If a team were to decline the shot, and take the powerplay, odds are that they would get more than one chance at a quality shot.
Then again, the argument the other way is also convincing. Many times, a team fails to generate a quality scoring opportunity on the powerplay. Sometimes it looks at though the team with the man advantage is trying too harder to set up the perfect tic-tac-toe goal. Why surrender the clear cut scoring opportunity that a penalty shot provides? Like they say in football, never take points off the board. The equivalent in hockey being, never deny yourself a scoring chance.
McGuire maintains that the option to choose should be there; let the head coach make that decision. While I see this point, I still think the penalty shot as it is now should stand.
If Michel Therrien had elected to decline the penalty shot, and went instead with the two-minute powerplay, a number of things would have changed.
First and foremost, hockey fans would have been denied the Crosby-Lundqvist matchup. Depending on which team you’re pulling for, the result was either wonderful, or a disappointment. But that’s not how to judge the moment. The anticipation was wonderful, something a two-minute powerplay rarely generates. It was perfect for television.
Second, the fact the penalty shot featured one of the young guns of the league allows sports media outlets to isolate this moment, as opposed to just another powerplay.
Third, the Penguns were pretty much guaranteed a good scoring chance, unless the player taking the shot loses control of the puck, or falls. (Even then, that play would have lived in infamy for years). If the Pens had taken the two-minute powerplay, they may have never generated a similar scoring opportunity. Sure, you take your chances; Pittsburgh might have manufactured a half-dozen good chances.
Or, they could have had their power-play time cut by being called for their own penalty. So many variables, some good, many not so good. By taking the penalty shot, you’re pretty much guaranteed one stellar scoring opportunity, which is what it’s all about. Giving back to the player the scoring chance the defence illegally took away.
Keep the penalty shot the way it is.
- Mick Kern
Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s
Tags: Henrik Lundqvist, hockey talk, Live From Wayne Gretzky's, mick kern, nbc sports, nhl home ice, NHL on NBC, penalty shot, Pierre McGuire, sidney crosby, sports radio