Three goals during a single two-minute power play? Many critics pointed to that incident as the reason the NHL changed the rule regarding serving a minor penalty. Back in the day, all guilty parties had to remain in the penalty box for the full two minutes. As of June 1956, a player serving a minor penalty would be released immediately if the other team scored a goal. The NHL listed the date of the rule change as June 6, but the Montreal Gazette indicated that the rule change may have been passed on June 4. Either way, the same NHL meeting at Montreal established the rule that would go into effect at the beginning of the 1956-57 season and continues to stand to this day.

When the NHL Board of Governors met for their 1956 annual meeting, the penalty rule was the biggest change they made that year. Rule 26c stated: “If while a Team is ‘short-handed’ by one or more minor or bench minor penalties, the opposing Team scores a goal, the first of such penalties shall automatically terminate.” Lynn Patrick, manager of Bruins, told the Montreal Gazette, “I’ll tell you the reasoning behind the rule. If a player draws a minor penalty for doing something illegal which may have saved a goal – like tripping or holding or hooking – and while he is off the opposing team scores, there is no reason why he shouldn’t be allowed to return to action immediately. The opposing team got the goal he may have saved by doing the thing he did which led to the penalty.”

The new rule was favored by five of the NHL clubs, represented by Tommy Ivan (Chicago), Hap Day (Toronto), Jack Adams (Detroit), Muzz Patrick (NY), and Lynn Patrick (Boston). Only Montreal, represented by Assistant General Manager Ken Reardon, opposed the rule change. In a follow-up article, Frank Boucher (former Rangers coach), remarked, “The new rule makes sense. We tried it out in the Western Hockey League last winter and everybody liked it. I see it was reported that the Canadiens were outvoted on the rule five to one. That’s wrong. They were outvoted 19 to one. The A.H.L. and the W.H.L. and the other five N.H.L. clubs voted for it. Only the Canadiens voted against it and that’s why it’s being said the rule was aimed at wrecking their power play.”

At the time, the Montreal Canadiens had the most success at scoring power play goals. During the previous season, they had scored twice during each of eight power plays. Most infamously, on November 5, 1955, the Boston Bruins led by 2-0 but incurred a minor penalty. Within the span of 44 seconds of the two minutes, Canadiens superstar Jean Beliveau scored the second-fastest hat trick in NHL history.

Many felt that the new penalty rule was directed at hindering the Canadiens. Their coach, Toe Blake, went off about the “that definitely is a rap at Montreal’s power play” saying, “I’ll put it this way. It’s like asking baseball to put in a rule that says Mickey Mantle can’t hit more than one homerun in one inning.” He continued, “If hockey keeps putting in rules to check scoring, they’ll be asking scorers like Beliveau and The Rocket and others to carry lead weights in their hip pockets as a handicap. We’ll wind up with a handicapping system for hockey players like they have in horseracing. Every time you win a game or score a goal, you’ll be asked to pick up extra pounds.” Maurice “Rocket” Richard was more realistic when he commented, “I think it’s all right. How many times do you think we scored more than one goal while the other team was a man short? . . . Think of all the times we didn’t score when we had a one-man advantage.”

Lynn Patrick, whose team lost thanks to Beliveau’s power play hat trick, justified, “Jack Adams advocated the new rule three years ago when Detroit had the best power play in hockey. He did so because he thought it would improve the game. There’s always resistance to suggested rule changes, but once they’re adopted the criticism stops because it becomes obvious that they did work an improvement.” He also squashed worries that crowds would not find power plays as exciting under this new rule. Sure, they were happy when it was their team doing the scoring, but they did not enjoy the experience of waiting out the penalty kills. Patrick gave an example. “We blew a lead and the hockey game because of a penalty and the people left the rink muttering against the Bruins. They didn’t get over it right away, either. We had about 4,000 fewer people at our next game than we could have had if it hadn’t happened.”

Because of the timing, the rule change was known as “The Canadiens Rule.” Indeed, Montreal scored ten fewer power-play goals with the new rule in place. However, the rest of the league saw an increase from 251 to 265 in power-play goals during that first season. While some have called for a return to the old method of sitting out the full two minutes, so far, the rule remains.

Additional Sources:
In her personal history, Kyle Hurst hated her toe picks and wanted to skate on a hockey team like her brother. With age comes wisdom, and realizing how poorly she skates, she now much prefers watching the professionals. Writing about history for her day job, Kyle enjoys combining her two loves by writing hockey history. She still hates toe picks.

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