Blackhawks coach Quenneville calls crackdown on faceoff violations an ‘epidemic’

It wasn’t just the Blackhawks who felt it. Toronto centre Nazem Kadri was tossed from the game’s opening faceoff and was thrown out from a draw a few seconds later on the same shift. The Leafs had 10 players take at least one faceoff.

Quenneville says the frustrating part about all the violations is the lack of clarity as to why players are being tossed.

“Right now (the officials) don’t tell you why, so that’s the part… It’s tough on centreman, certainly frustration for Johnny, and Kadri was doing the same thing you know.

“I don’t think they quite understood the reason why and that’s a work in progress, finding out why you’re getting tossed without an answer.”

The NHL told The Canadian Press in the pre-season that cracking down on face-off violations is about safety and the integrity of game.

The changes do not stem from new rules, but from stricter enforcement of the old ones.

“We just felt we’d let it erode too much and it was time to shore up the face-off procedure, especially the marks in the face-off circles,” NHL director of officiating Stephen Walkom said on Sept. 19. “It was becoming unsafe for the linesmen, with (players’) feet behind them.

“We’re trying to get them to understand it’s important for the integrity of the faceoffs and it’s important for the safety of the players and the linesmen.”

For faceoffs, players must face their opponent squarely and keep their feet behind the lines. It was common for centres to cheat by moving as close as possible to the faceoff dots to gain leverage on opponents.

If a player cheats, he is tossed out of the faceoff and a teammate takes his place. If a team does it twice on the same faceoff, it is given a two-minute penalty.

While numerous players were tossed from draws in the Blackhawks-Leafs game, no one was handed a minor penalty.

The NHL said in the pre-season that it also planned to crackdown on slashing on the hands this season. There were nine slashing minors handed out, including one on Chicago defenceman Jan Rutta late in the third period that led to Toronto’s tying goal to force overtime.

— With files from Bill Beacon in Montreal

Kyle Cicerella, The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Blackhawks coach Quenneville calls crackdown on faceoff violations an ‘epidemic’

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