You've got to know that long before anybody talks to our guys, they recognize and know they might have missed a call in a game.

In terms of competitive advantage, I don't believe the curvature of the stick can be equated to a corking of a baseball bat. If you watch (players) and see them preparing to get ready for any game, they know what the rule is and you see them with the saws and files, trying to make their sticks perfect or as close as they can. The good players are right on the edge of every rule and stick measurement is no different.

In the old culture, the old way of thinking, a rule broken in certain situations was not called. The difference is our guys see it and they call it, regardless of the situation. Do that, you have consistency; if you don't, you fall back the other way and it's clutch and grab again.

I hope that the league is giving fans what they want. I was at a game last night, there was hitting, there was scoring - it was entertaining.

The instructions to the referees . . . are identical to that of the regular season. We just want them to go out there and call the game the way they called it in the regular season.

I've got a lot of confidence in these guys, they understand their responsibilities in these games, and if they see a foul in these games, I fully expect they'll react to it. I believe we've given them the proper instructions to stay the course, and they're committed to stay the course.

It's not just the players' culture and coaches' culture that needs to change. It's the officiating culture as well because accepted practices in the past will no longer be accepted.

It's a big change for players, but it's a bigger change for the referees. They've grown up not being involved in the third period and overtime. But you can expect good things from our guys. Our mission is the same. There's always that mental side of officiating. We've worked hard to prepare our guys.

We've had a lot of guys put them on this season, anyway. That was kind of a wake-up call.

We have to have awareness for the soap opera. It's a vicious circle, the way it works.