Boogaard the Barometer

It seems as though one of our players has been widely used throughout the league by NHL officials this season to measure the barometric pressure in any given arena. The measurements are recorded and then used by the officials to determine any changes in the game that may have occurred. Finally, on-ice calls are made accordingly, adjusting to certain abnormalities. Derek Boogaard has taken on the role of a barometer and unfortunately, the pressure has been too much for the referee's to take and they have penalized him for this.

Russo blogged about Boogaard being a favorite target of certain officials a week or so ago but another 'incident' occurred again in last night 4-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks. It was just past the mid-way point of the second period when Boogaard and Ducks defenseman Nick Boynton dropped the gloves and engaged in a fight. Everything looked as if this was an every day, garden variety fight, lots of tugging with few punches finding their mark. The officials then intervened in the usual way, except that #84, linesman Tony Sericolo, took what looked to be a jab to the midsection from Boogaard. Now it is many a times where an official gets injured, whether it be during the play or after, even perhaps subduing combatants who were fighting. The unusual and inexcusable call on this play was that simply because Sericolo was injured in the tussle, Boogaard was given a 10-minute misconduct, in addition to the warranted 5 minute fighting major.

It is real disappointing that a player who towers above most, plays aggressive, and is not afraid to mix it up, is penalized repeatedly simply because of his size. At 6-7, 258, Boogaard is obviously specimen on skates, as his frame is more suited for the UFC. But this should be no reason for on-ice officials to take their own liberties in the form of penalties against him. It would be one thing if Boogaard was a constant repeat offender of dirty plays that resulted in suspensions. On the contrary, for a player who garners as much attention as he does by the league, to my knowledge, to date he has been suspended only once during his NHL career, five games for an elbow to Calgary's Brandon Prust late last season.

What if?

Below is a simple calculation of what the Western Conference standings would look like if the league did the right thing and discarded the free point for losing a game...(tie breakers were not considered)

	W	L	pts
Chicago	26	13	52
Phoenix	25	16	50
Vancouver	23	15	46
San Jose	24	15	48
Nashville	23	17	46
Colorado	22	18	44
Los Angeles	22	17	44
Calgary	21	17	42
Minnesota	20	20	40
Detroit	19	20	38
Dallas	17	22	34
St. Loius	17	22	34
Anaheim	16	23	32
Columbus	15	26	30
Edmonton	15	24	30

Looking at the above standings compared to the actual standings, there is no change in teams making the top 8...conversely, the bottom dwellers stayed the same. However, within the top 8 and bottom 7, there is significant changes. For Wild fans the obvious change is that instead of being 4 points out of the playoffs in the current standings, this model shows them only 2 points out. You can draw your own conclusions on what you see...but it does seem as though there has been some momentum on seeking some changes in how points are awarded.