The NHL's jersey-tuck crackdown charges way too much for a shirt

The NHL has decided the biggest threat to the game this fall is a shirt. It's a dumb hill to die on, and the league will be quietly walking back down it by American Thanksgiving.

Here's what happened. Trevor Zegras got a warning in the first period of Thursday's preseason game against Boston for having his jersey tucked into his pants. He came out for a shift in the second still tucked, and referee Jon McIsaac gave him two minutes for delay of game (equipment) at 9:51. The Flyers won 2-0 anyway.

It was the first tuck penalty in roughly 13 years. The last ones went to Alexander Semin in the 2013 preseason and Evgeni Malkin on Nov. 29, 2013. McIsaac made his NHL debut that same month, so the man has been waiting a while for this.

The rule itself isn't new. Rules 9.5 and 12.1 say protective equipment has to be covered by the uniform, and the league reads a tucked jersey as breaking that. What's new is the enforcement: officials now warn a player first and call a minor if it happens again.

Zegras didn't sound like a man staging a protest. "I started the game with it tucked; that's how I usually play," he said. "Must have just went back down the bench and came out and forgot."

Then he went to Instagram with old photos of himself tucked in and a shot of Tom Brady from the Tuck Rule game, which is the correct response.

Rick Tocchet had the practical answer. "Obviously he can't do it anymore," the Flyers coach said. "He's got to put a tie-down because the regular season starts; we can't have a penalty like that for a tucked-in jersey." He also said, "The days of Gretzky and the tucks don't work anymore."

The Ferda take: keep the rule, change the price. Nobody on the ice is safer because Zegras untucked his jersey, and no opponent gained anything when he didn't. A two-minute minor is a real penalty with a real power play attached, and that's a lot of punishment for a wardrobe issue.

Treat it as housekeeping. Warn him, send him to the bench to fix it, and save the minor for a guy who ignores it twice. The league gets its uniform standard and nobody loses a game over a shirt.

And someone will, if nothing changes. Gretzky, Jaromir Jagr and Alex Ovechkin all made the tuck famous, and Philadelphia has Matvei Michkov, who also likes his jersey tucked. Habits like that don't disappear because of one memo.

The call: a tuck penalty leads to a power-play goal in a one-goal regular-season game before Halloween. The clip goes everywhere, and the league stops calling it by American Thanksgiving without ever saying so.

Until then, the advice for every tucker in the league is simple. Get the tie-down, or get used to the penalty box.