The NHL General Managers are in Toronto on Tuesday to meet at the League office for the annual November meeting. These meetings are typically held to discuss several topics, provide updates and drafting up an agenda for the annual March meetings.
These meetings are important, as they have led to rule changes and new developments over the last several seasons. One such addition is the coaches challenge, which allows the coaches to question certain on-ice determinations, such as a missed offside call or an overlooked goaltender interference call, which results in a goal against, potentially having the on-ice call reversed.
"It's to make sure everybody thinks we're in a good place and to the extent we need to clarify some things." said Commissioner Gary Bettman, regarding the discussions at the meetings. One such discussion topic that is on today's agenda is the offside rule. "83.1 Off-side – Players of the attacking team must not precede the puck into the attacking zone" is the way the rule is written in the rulebook now. There have been questions about what constitutes "puck control" when entering the zone, which has led to much controversy, with offside calls having been made due to a player using his skate to corral the puck and redirect it to his stick while crossing the line. There is also the matter of at least one skate needing to be in contact with the ice behind the blue line before the puck enters the zone.
As far as the actual coaches challenge rule goes, a coach can ask for a review if they were scored against and they feel that the opposing team was offside on the play before the goal was scored. A coach may not use this challenge in any other scenario, such as to bring a faceoff outside of the defensive zone.
The League does have a few caveats or exceptions for the coaches challenge rule; "Goals will only be reviewed for a potential "Off-Side" infraction if: (a) the puck does not come out of the attacking zone again; or (b) all members of the attacking team do not clear the attacking zone again, between the time of the "Off-Side" play and the time the goal is scored. In the event that a goal is reversed due to the Linesman determining that the play was "Off-Side" prior to the goal being scored, the clock (including penalty time clocks, if applicable) will be re-set to the time at which the play should have been stopped for the "Off-Side" infraction."
"I know there needs to be some discussion because a couple of Managers have requested it on offside," said Commissioner Bettman. Just two years ago, after a lot of debate, the GMs decided to leave the offside rule alone, despite some lobbying to have the blue line considered as more of a vertical plane rather than just a line on the ice. This would allow a player to have a skate elevated above the line or just behind it when entering the zone and still remain onside. This is something that may be discussed again on Tuesday.
Bettman also took the time to comment on what some of the issues with the offside challenges are.
"What is interesting is the complaints about offside saying, 'Well, it was just a tiny bit offside.' That's not the video replay's fault, that's the rule, and video replay gets it right. I'm not sure there is a better way to do it, but that's what we're going to discuss."
As it stands, a failed attempt at a coaches challenge for offside results in a minor penalty for delay-of-game the first time, and a double-minor every time after, with no limit on the number of challenges, should the coach want to risk it.
It will be interesting to see what, if anything, comes from these talks and whether there will be amendments to either the offside rule or the coaches challenge rule.
