It looks like you may be beginning to understand.
You are absolutely correct that a rule shouldn't have more or less impact at one time in the match than another (unless the benefits of breaking the rule are different - more benefits, stiffer penalty is necessary). Which is one reason why the 90-second rule is necessary.
If, 5 minutes into an NXL match, I am assessed a major penalty, not only do I lose a teammate on THIS point, my team will play one man short for the next 5 minutes. As I'm sure you would agree, this is a pretty devastating penalty and it is very likely that because of my major penalty, my opponent is going to score an additional point or two points or even three points in the next 5 minutes while I'm stuck playing a man down.
Now, lets say my opponent commits the same infraction that I did, only they did it with 60 seconds left in the match. Same infraction, same penalty, only I had to play short for 5 minutes, and they only have to play short for 60 seconds. This is, very simply, not fair.
That is one reason why the 90 second rule exists. Without it, a major penalty in the final seconds of the game is a much smaller penalty than a major penalty any other time during the match.
That's not the only reason though. There are two other reasons:
1) At the end of the match, you want to prevent people from committing fouls to wind down the game time. If I'm up one or two points, and I can burn 15-20 seconds off the clock by playing on, I should play on, because the only thing that's going to happen is that I get a major penalty. But I don't care - losing a guy doesn't matter since my real goal is to end the match while I'm ahead. The 90-second rule prevents teams from burning game time by cheating.
2) At the end of the game, I know exactly what the score is, and my payoff for cheating is potentially MUCH higher than doing so any other time during the match. If I'm down a point, or tied, or even up a point, not leaving the field when I'm hit can definitively make a difference as to whether I win the match or not. This isn't true 5 minutes after the match starts. And when the penalty for potentially winning the match is I lose a body for this point (because after this point the match is over), I'm not going to leave the field. It is not smart to do so. But if the penalty is, I lose this point, and lose the match, then my payoff relative to the penalty is more likely to be effective at insuring I don't intentionally cheat.
You may not like the 90-second rule, but you'll like what a smart team does without a 90-second rule even less.
You are absolutely correct that a rule shouldn't have more or less impact at one time in the match than another (unless the benefits of breaking the rule are different - more benefits, stiffer penalty is necessary). Which is one reason why the 90-second rule is necessary.
If, 5 minutes into an NXL match, I am assessed a major penalty, not only do I lose a teammate on THIS point, my team will play one man short for the next 5 minutes. As I'm sure you would agree, this is a pretty devastating penalty and it is very likely that because of my major penalty, my opponent is going to score an additional point or two points or even three points in the next 5 minutes while I'm stuck playing a man down.
Now, lets say my opponent commits the same infraction that I did, only they did it with 60 seconds left in the match. Same infraction, same penalty, only I had to play short for 5 minutes, and they only have to play short for 60 seconds. This is, very simply, not fair.
That is one reason why the 90 second rule exists. Without it, a major penalty in the final seconds of the game is a much smaller penalty than a major penalty any other time during the match.
That's not the only reason though. There are two other reasons:
1) At the end of the match, you want to prevent people from committing fouls to wind down the game time. If I'm up one or two points, and I can burn 15-20 seconds off the clock by playing on, I should play on, because the only thing that's going to happen is that I get a major penalty. But I don't care - losing a guy doesn't matter since my real goal is to end the match while I'm ahead. The 90-second rule prevents teams from burning game time by cheating.
2) At the end of the game, I know exactly what the score is, and my payoff for cheating is potentially MUCH higher than doing so any other time during the match. If I'm down a point, or tied, or even up a point, not leaving the field when I'm hit can definitively make a difference as to whether I win the match or not. This isn't true 5 minutes after the match starts. And when the penalty for potentially winning the match is I lose a body for this point (because after this point the match is over), I'm not going to leave the field. It is not smart to do so. But if the penalty is, I lose this point, and lose the match, then my payoff relative to the penalty is more likely to be effective at insuring I don't intentionally cheat.
You may not like the 90-second rule, but you'll like what a smart team does without a 90-second rule even less.
