You're given the green light to make one rule change for the next NHL season. What rule are you changing?
Bettman says he's okay if you want to bring back the rule against forward passes, he doesn't mind if you want to revert to old-school icing, he just demends you keep it to one rule change; you know, evolution is better than revolution...
What rule are you changing, tweaking, binning or creating.
It wouldn’t change much, but a defender clearing the puck over the glass should be treated the same as icing. If the team clears the puck over the glass before exiting their zone after the subsequent face off then call a Delay of Game.
I can’t stand the Delay of Game rule for accidental pucks over the glass, though. It doesn’t feel in the spirit of what Delay of Game means to me, at least not anymore than intentionally icing the puck.
I think the big difference is the potential for injury.
Intentionall icing just sends the puck down the ice, intentional puck-over-the-glass could really hurt someone, especially if its a kid or an older person.
I think keeping it as a penalty makes sense to discourage its use as a tactic to relieve the pressure like you do with icing.
I should be clear, I’m advocating for a return to how it was called pre-lockout. Putting the puck over the glass wasn’t an automatic delay of game, but it could be a penalty at the ref’s discretion (e.g. team is on the penalty kill and puts it over the glass to get a breather).
Prior to the lockout, this just didn’t happen that often, at least not much more often than it happens today. The reason the rule was introduced coming out of the lockout was to increase the amount of goals by increasing the number of ways teams could go on the power play.
I think I'd agree. You would have to treat icing the same way; a delay of game for either icing the puck or tossing it over the glass a second time without clearing the zone.
Add another ref who sits just off the ice, and is a "video ref" looking at as many screens as he chooses, of the available cameras, and has the power to whistle his own penalties or overturn the penalties from the ref on the ice. There's no reason to deliberately not use the technology available to us rather than the randomness of whether something happens to get challenged for video review.
Adapting someone else's football review plan for hockey. There should be one ref, and one team advocate for each team, if 2/3 agree on a penalty/review then it happens. The window for agreement needs to be 2-3 seconds at the most. All should be trained to some degree in watching replays, and how various angles change perspective, because video review is a totally separate skill from real time refereeing.
Any call is reviewable, for any reason in the rulebook. You still go on a penalty if you lose, but you can call anything. The difference is, the decision is made by the on-ice refs in under 2 minutes, without using slow-mo or pausing. If you can't see it in that time using regular speed, it should stand. Keep the game moving
Oh, and refs are now required to have after-game media availability. If they don't want that, they're welcome to retire
In this day and age, where sports are as much about betting as players, any league that DOESN'T put their referees in public display is just asking for manipulation and problems and any smart fan (and owner) should see red flags.
Imagine a league where the refs are subject to public criticism... Doesn't mean a bad job gets fired, but they should drive more training and classes to get consistency right (nobody should lose their job unless they really can't cut it).
Anyway, that won't happen. They don't care about the fans, they care about the revenue.
Oh, and I'd like some sort of positive reinforcement for sportsmanship. I saw cricket does something like that. So give each ref one standings point per year (as an example) and let them award it when they see something especially good. They know the written and unwritten rules, it'd be cool to let them reward dudes that play the right way. And imagine the crowd and both teams going nuts for some 4th liner getting a Lady Byng Point or whatever.
Institute review of embellishment/diving after games and penalize with 10 minute misconducts to suspension for the following game. It's unsportsmanlike like dirty hits and should be treated as such IMO.
I actually really like this idea in theory. It's far too easy for a team to make a game saving play in the final seconds by slashing the stick away, or taking a guys legs. This would actually allow some pushback in those instances. I say we make it happen.
I agree with the limit on offside goal calls. If you can't stop them by 15-30 seconds then it didn't materially affect play. None of this 'oh 2 minutes ago one dude didn't grag his leg enough, no goal'
It more just allows fighting to happen more, it's less about preventing players getting jumped, and more about making fighting expensive to a team based on a highly subjective call by the refs.
I want a system like dodge ball where if you have a man in the box and are up against a power play, you can do a specific action to get your man back.
Hell, go the extra mile. Anything that would put you in the box, sends you to the other team. Power plays would go from 5v4 to 6v4. Oughta cut down on fighting, since if you fight you gotta help the other team for 5 minutes or until your team can win you back.
Maybe it should only be one team dropped and one promoted. That'll also do a lot for the coach carousel too, while fighting teams tanking too hard and better aligning the AHL with the NHL in play style and value. I think it wouldn't take long before the billionaire owners would buy their AHL teams and take care of them better