“Mirroring” is the new obstruction

By now you know all about how scoring is down and many fear the dark days of the dead puck era have returned. One of the issues is the lack of penalties called and the very apparent creep of obstruction back in the game.

The New York Times explains what’s got everyone in a bind is called “mirroring” and league officials know all about it.

Called mirroring, it occurs when a defenseman skates in the same route taken by a forechecker trying to get to a puck that has been dumped into the offensive zone. The defenseman skates slightly in front of him, mirroring his path at a slower speed and preventing him from proceeding at full speed.

The managers might see it as slippage in the standard, but referees might view it as not explicitly violating the rules.

“It’s not holding or interference, it’s just getting in the guy’s way,” said Gary Meagher, the league’s vice president of communications, who is closely involved in the managers’ meetings.

You’ll see it in every game on dumps to the corner: The forechecker getting essentially faceguarded as he skates towards the puck. According to how the rule book is written regarding interference, mirroring seems to be allowed (Rule 56.1 makes it sound OK).

Call it mirroring all you want, but obstruction is obstruction no matter what name you give it. If the league is worried about the game being gummed up, making a move to penalize mirroring would take care of things until a new way to cheat the rules is discovered.