Flyers Dan Carcillo Killing Penalties, Seriously?

The NHL is holding a hearing with Daniel Carcillo at 3pm this afternoon about the cheap shot he took on the face-off against Max Talbot. The NHL needs to seriously look into some rule changes for the end of both playoff games and regular season games.

Last night with 14 seconds left in the game, the Flyers were killing a 5 on 3 penalty and Ryan Parent slashed then cross check face planted Jordan Staal into the boards. What did he get for it? A two minute penalty for cross checking which in no way had a possibility of effecting the play on the ice. Basically once the 5 on 3 occurred it was possible for the Flyers to injure the Penguin players with absolutely no recourse.

With 7 seconds left the Flyers put enforcer Daniel Carcillo a former Penguin draft pick on the ice to kill the 5 on 3, he then proceeded to butt end Max Talbot in the face.  This is a guy who had all of 43 seconds penalty killing time for the Flyers during the regular season. The majority, 25 seconds, of which was during a 4-1 blowout loss to the NY Rangers. Are you seeing a trend?

While I’m sure that the 3pm hearing for Carcillo will end up nothing more than a verbal scolding over the phone, the NHL needs to hold a hearing for GM Paul Holmgren and coach John Stevens.  Does Bettman remember warning flyers GM Paul Holmgren a year and a half ago about their on-ice play?

I’m sure everyone is familiar with hockey rule #47.22 –  “A player or goalkeeper who is deemed to be the instigator of an altercation in the final five (5) minutes of regulation  time or at anytime in overtime, shall automatically be suspended for one game. The Director of Hockey Operations will review every such incident and may rescind the suspension based on a number of criteria. The criteria for the review shall include, but not limited to, the score, previous incidents, etc….”

While there was no instigator of an altercation, the NHL still needs two new rules one for regular season and one for playoffs.

In the regular season, a game cannot end while the lower scoring team is on the power play. This will stop teams from tackling a player on a breakaway with 10 seconds left when they are winning and many other things. Tied games cannot end until all penalties are over, not including game misconducts.

This is a rule that works fantastic for the NFL and would definitely create more excitement at the end of games

In the playoffs, if a team that is down by more than two goals has three penalties with under a minute left of these sorts: Slashing, Cross Checking, Instigation, High Sticking, Butt Ending, Elbowing, Clipping, Charging … all of the ones that injure the other player, delay of game, too many men type penalties would not count. Third penalty results in players suspended for one game and a team fine.  It’s that simple.

They can name the rule the Flyers need to learn how to play hockey so they don’t have to send goons out at the end of the game rule or just rule #47.23.