To play or not to play the national anthem, that was the question mulled over by the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League.

The PIHL reportedly issued a directive to its 183 teams a few days ago to ban the anthem from being played prior to PIHL games.

“That whole thing just came out wrong,” PIHL commissioner Ed Sam said. “It stemmed from a single incident and that has been rectified.”

Because of the significant cost of ice time — teams pay as much as $300 an hour — PIHL games are played under a time limit. Varsity games have an hour and 50 minutes to complete three 17-minute periods, with the ice being cleaned after the first or second period of each game.

Varsity games consisted of 15-minute periods before this season, when they expanded to 17.

“Games were getting over quickly and paid-for ice time was being wasted,” Butler coach and former player Mike Guentner said. “The league decided to increase the length of the periods and that rushed everybody a bit.

“This (national anthem issue) is just a misconception. Teams have always had the option to play the anthem. Since I started coaching last year, I don’t think the anthem has been played before any of our games. But we were never told by the league we couldn’t play it.”

Butler plays its home games at the Ice Connection in Valencia. The national anthem is not played before PIHL games there.

“When I played, the anthem was always played before our games,” Guentner recalled. “It seems to have gone by the wayside in the last five years or so.”

Sam said a recent junior varsity game was curfewed because the pregame rendition of the national anthem lasted five minutes.

“That doesn’t sound like much, but it can make a difference,” Sam said.

But rather than ban the anthem from being played, the PIHL came up with a standard Marine Corps rendition that lasts a minute, 15 seconds.

“When the anthem is played before our games, that’s the version that will be used,” Sam said.

Freeport coach Dave Hepler barely recalls the national anthem being played prior to the Yellowjackets’ regular season games regardless. Freeport plays its home games at Kittanning’s Belmont Arena.

“Before playoff games, maybe, it’s been played,” Hepler said. “But I’ve hardly ever heard it before regular season games, so this is a non-issue to me.

“If it was commonly played before all league games, though, the idea of eliminating it because of curfew concerns would be totally ridiculous. Cut the pregame warm-up time from five minutes to four minutes if you’re that worried about it.”

Hepler has been coaching at Freeport for nine years and could not recall having a game cut short because the allotted time expired.

“We’ve been involved in games where a player is injured and it’s taken a long time to get him off the ice, penalty-filled games ... it never happens,” Hepler said.

Sam admitted that PIHL games have been halted by curfew “on extremely rare occasions” over the years.

The commissioner said a rule has been on the league’s books for years stating that if a team is trailing by one goal, that game was curfewed and any kind of pregame ceremony took place, the losing team could file a protest.

“Playing the national anthem is considered a pregame ceremony,” Sam said.

“But I understand everybody’s feelings. Saying the anthem couldn’t be played and trying to explain why was a poor choice of words on my part.”