Hockey Prompt

I think the lack of trick plays in the NHL boils down to two things: the amount that's on the line literally every game, it seems, with parity always being pretty good especially in the playoffs; and the skill floor of an NHL player being too high to reliably fall for such things. For the most part, if you get in the playoffs you at least have a measurable chance of going all the way. I think recent data science projects around the NHL and win probability have shown that a LOT of the predictors associated with success have a healthy amount of random effect. It makes sense that a team wouldn't want to squander their only attempt(s) at more wins than expected by running trick plays that could get them out of position in an instant. Although nobody is, therefore, preparing for such trick plays, they don't have to; very rarely would an NHL player who would be unable to sense something was coming even be on the ice. I suppose you could argue "well, GCool, surely the side executing the trick play knows this as well and it's always the perfect time" and you'd be right pragmatically. I just think the preparation for every opponent in the NHL is already taxing enough, and the risk is entirely too high for a reward that can be attained by playing to one's non-tricky strengths at all times.