The NHL embraces going to the tape - Behind the Scenes - National Hockey League uses video tape to review rules violations

Hockey Digest, May, 2002 by Randy Schultz

EARLY IN THE THIRD PERIOD OF an early season game between the Buffalo Sabres and Montreal Canadiens at the HSBC Arena, the puck slides across the blue line into the Montreal zone.

Buffalo forward Vaclav Varada and Montreal goaltender Jose Theodore each skate quickly towards the puck. At the last second, Theodore takes the low road and Varada takes the high, flying over the Montreal netminder. Varada's knee catches Theodore in the head, knocking the goalie unconscious. Varada slides into the boards, gets up, turns around, and continues skating. He is immediately met by veteran Canadiens forward Doug Gilmour, who nails Varada with a knee-to-knee hit.

Varada drops to the ice grasping his knee, as Gilmour pounces on top of him and begins to punch the fallen Sabre. After the game Gilmour explains that he thought Varada was intentionally going after Theodore.

All of this on-ice action doesn't go unnoticed. Upstairs in the press box, Paul Brighty, the NHL's video coordinator, has jotted down the incident in his notebook and is immediately on the phone to his office in Toronto. Brighty talks to a colleague, who has already captured the incident on video and is e-mailing the clip to the NHL's offices in New York so it can be reviewed the next morning. Within 48 hours of the original incident, a ruling is handed down with Varada and Gilmour each receiving one-game suspensions.

Located on the 11th floor of the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, the NHL's video-operation office, featuring 20 television monitors, is the league's version of the White House's situation room.

"What we do is tape every game, every night," Brighty says. "If we don't video the game, we get the replay the next day. We'll take those games and people from our staff are assigned to watch a game.

"If there is a good or bad call by the referee, we'll isolate it on the tape. We'll digitize it, put it out on the Internet, and the referee in question, who has access to the Internet, will access the clip and review it himself. What we're ultimately trying to do is educate the referees."

The chain of events following the Sabres-Canadiens incident illustrates the process. "There were at least two people watching that game in our control room back in Toronto," Brighty says. "Before I was even on the phone with them, they had already captured the whole situation and had it ready to go to New York.

"I simply talked to them on the phone and made sure they had seen the situation. Then the guys back in Toronto will isolate that particular clip for me. Then the next morning I went into my office, took that clip, digitized it, and sent it out to the appropriate people, including [Director of Hockey Operations] Colin Campbell. He was then able to look at the clip and handle the situation with those involved. He then handed out the appropriate measures of discipline and moved on from there."

The NHL's video operation extends beyond the main office. "We all have dishes and video equipment at our homes as well," Brighty says, "so we can watch and tape games from there."

At the main video room in the NHL's Toronto offices, there are shelves of videotapes housing each game played over the course of the entire 1,230-game season. Those tapes are kept for up to two years before being disposed of.

"It is our job to let Colin know what is going on in the league all the time," Brighty says. "The most important thing about this operation is that it is proactive and not reactive. We want the league to be able to make decisions in a timely manner.

"This is designed as a teaching process for the referees. It is also designed to have eyes on all the games going on for "Coly" in New York. That way, if there is an incident in a game where a major penalty is called, he is immediately notified. And if he hasn't already seen it, we'll clip it and send it out on the Internet. We're just trying to stay a step ahead of things going on. We're actually reviewing things before teams can contact us."

Brighty admits that the NHL has come a long way in dealing with major incidents. "We were always reacting before the video and computer age," Brighty says. "If there was something that had happened, like the Varada-Gilmour incident in Buffalo, we would have called up the Sabres to see if they had a copy of the tape of the game. If they didn't, then we would contact one of the local television stations to see if they had a copy of the incident ... It was a very slow process, to say the least."

Unfortunately, the league still isn't able to monitor a handful of games in real time. But the NHL is prepared for those situations. For instance, an Anaheim at Calgary game played in early December wasn't televised into either market, but the NHL knew it ahead of time. "We asked the home team to tape the game for us, using the equipment they have to broadcast the game on their Jumbotron," Brighty says.

It was a good thing too. With just 1:25 remaining in the contest and Anaheim leading, 4-0, Ducks enforcer Kevin Sawyer crosschecked Flames goalie Mike Vernon in the face. The incident began a full-scale brawl. When the smoke cleared, the Flames had established an NHL record for most penalty minutes by one team in one period with 190, beating the old mark of 188 set by the 1979 Philadelphia Flyers. In all, 279 minutes of penalties were called in the final 1:25, with 182 minutes going to the Flames and 97 minutes to the Ducks.