Minor Rule Changes
Among a small handful of minor rule changes, the NHL’s GMs voted to send these recommendations to the league’s Competition Committee, which can then forward any changes on to be ratified by the Board of Governors:
- Coaches will now have the ability to challenge a minor penalty call when a puck is deflected out of play and when a player is high-sticked. A penalty must have been called on the play, and if successfully challenged, the penalty can be rescinded. But the coach better get it right. If the challenge is unsuccessful, the penalty will remain and an additional penalty will be added for unsuccessful challenge, resulting in a 5-on-3 disadvantage. There must be conclusive video evidence and the idea is to prevent incorrect calls for pucks that may have been re-directed off the boards or glass first, or in situations where there is “friendly fire” on a high-stick, when a player is hit in the face by his own teammate.
- Goalies are added to the description in Rule 63.8, which manages game flow when a net is “accidentally” jarred loose during play. If a goaltender is determined to have accidentally knocked the net off while making a save, the goaltender’s team will lose the right to make a line change, and the opposing team will have choice of faceoff location in the attacking zone.
Boca Bytes
One instant change for this season: Players will first receive a warning and then a minor penalty for sitting on the boards or hanging over the boards prior to making a line change. A linesman received a skate cut earlier this season from a player who left his skate at the top of the bench … Campbell said the GMs again discussed changing OT rules to prevent regrouping in the neutral zone, but that the group did not have much appetite to make a change. This season, 70 percent of games that make it to OT end in OT, which is a record high. They also noted that the ECHL moved to a 7-minute OT session, which produces a result in 75.6 percent of games this year, but felt it was too taxing for star players to lengthen the game … For offside review, the NHL plans to continue to be lenient on players entering the zone with clear control and possession, even if the puck is not currently on his stick at the moment his blades cross the blue line … Still to determine a consensus, but the NHL is proposing moving up morning skate times to 10:15 am for home teams and 11:15 am local time for visiting teams. These times have been 10:30 and 11:30 for decades for 7 o’clock starts …