The Montreal Canadiens just made run to the Stanley Cup Final.
After a tumultuous regular season that saw them get off to a great start followed by a lull, a coaching change, a bit of a resurgence and then another lull, the Canadiens pulled off an unlikely run to get within three wins of the Stanley Cup.
Though the run was surprising, it did solidify the old cliche that the Canadiens were “built for the playoffs.”
What that really means is that they have scoring, depth and good goaltending, but above all they played a physical style that wore opponents down. A big part of this was their top pairing of defenders, Shea Weber and Ben Chiarot as well as Joel Edmundson constantly putting a beating on their opposition.
A lot of that pounding from the Canadiens defenceman was via cross checks in front of the net and in the corners while battling for pucks. It sounds like a new rule, or rule emphasis, could put an end to all of that.
2021-22 Rule Interpretation: Rule 59 - Cross-checking
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) September 24, 2021
For the 2021-22 season there will be a tighter standard of enforcement for Rule 59 - Cross-checking.
Find more in the NHL Video Rulebook: https://t.co/HJ93BdTp5f pic.twitter.com/H95yTcr4M3
The league recently put an emphasis on calling slashing penalties, and it resulted in a lot of slashing penalties for a few weeks and then the standard really started to pull back towards its norm.
The same thing could happen with cross checking, and likely will. We probably see five or six penalties for that one infraction in tonight’s preseason game, but by November it will be back to what we are used to seeing, which is a terribly inconsistent and awful standard of officiating.
While the officiating had a brutal standard over the years, the Canadiens clearly built their blue line with that standard in mind. A bunch of physical, bruising blue liners are more valuable in front of Carey Price if they are allowed to really bend the rules that we see printed in the rule book.
If the league actually really clamps down on cross checking like the video suggests, and continues that standard for the entire season, it will force Ben Chiarot and Joel Edmundson, two of the Canadiens top four defenders, to change their approach.
Of course, with Cole Caufield in town for a full season and Mike Hoffman joining the Canadiens this year, the Habs power play will be a lot more dangerous that previous seasons.
They will benefit from extra power plays as well, but that big, physical, punishing defence is going to have to adapt if cross checking is now called as it was always intended.