If this keeps up, the NHL is going to be a lot uglier this season.
With the preseason schedule in full swing, there already have been a shocking amount of slashing penalties and faceoff violations called, something the league said it was going to have its officials focus on this year, but which hardly anyone thought was going to be this extreme.
“Seriously,” Islanders coach Doug Weight said after his team’s 1-0 overtime loss to the Rangers on Monday night, “it was awful.”
That game featured 18 combined penalties, nine of them for slashing and one for a faceoff violation.