It’s an ugly introduction to NHL’s new game

Edmonton and Calgary were assessed 22 penalties in their exhibition opener. So were Phoenix and Minnesota in a 3-2 game in which every goal was scored on the power play. Phoenix’s second game, against Minnesota, featured 24 penalties.

Montreal and Atlanta were called for 32 penalties on Sunday, a day after Los Angeles and Anaheim brought hockey back to southern California with 36 penalties for 125 minutes. Each team had 11 power plays, which had to be pure coincidence. The notion that referees even up their calls was supposed to vanish this season, along with the hooking, holding and grabbing that had turned hockey into mud wrestling minus the good, clean fun.

“A whole year on the power play? This is what we’re going to get?” Ducks goalie Ilya Bryzgalov said after the Kings rallied for a 4-2 victory. “A goals-against average of 3.5, and that will be the leader.”

Craig Conroy, whose Kings debut was delayed a year by the lockout, said practice and a league-produced video hadn’t prepared him for the penalty parade.

“It’s definitely going to be ugly for a little while,” he said, “but if they keep calling it, eventually, to win games, you gotta stay out of the box.”

To Kings defenseman Aaron Miller, the result Saturday was “brutal and ridiculous out there. … But if that’s what the league wants, that’s what they’ll get, and we’ll just try to do our best to adjust. You’d better have good special teams or you’re done for. And you’ve got to have speed in this new league we’re playing in.”

The NHL has traveled this route before only to retreat around midseason, when general managers complained about the number of penalties. Remember, too, that these are lifetime habits that players must break, years of being told that if an opponent might beat you, it’s OK to grab his stick or arm or jersey and hang on.

“It’s going to be a big change for a lot of people,” said Kings center Derek Anderson. “But if it betters the game, then the changes will be good.”