NHL’s new coach’s challenge rule has yet to see play, but it could have impact

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This article was published 30/09/2015 (3641 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s a new rule to the National Hockey League that hasn’t created the same kind of buzz as the 3-on-3 overtime period. But that’s only because it won’t be available until the real games begin.

Indeed, of all the new rules changes this season, a coach’s challenge is one of the few the league has put a hold on until the start of the 2015-16 calendar.

But that doesn’t mean coaches haven’t already started to tinker with how, and when, it should be used, including Winnipeg Jets head coach Paul Maurice. He was asked whether he’s started to strategize, or at the very least, put a meaningful thought to how it could affect his team throughout an 82-game season.

“In terms of how we use it, we’ve got the same thing as every team has: we have the video in the room, we have people watching it very close, we have communication from the room to the bench and they’re going to make their best call but we’re also going to have our players help with those calls,” said Maurice, who added during the coach’s meetings this summer, they were bombarded with video after video, none of which determined a unanimous answer.

“So for our goaltender, you know, I don’t want to burn that timeout just because the tender is a little sour, they got to help me make the right challenge by what they see. If a guy comes to the bench and says that’s good, I’m not going to throw it.”

According to a breakdown by the NHL, coaches are only allowed to challenge certain scenarios including an “off-side” play that leads to a goal, or a scoring play involving potential “interference on the goaltender,” – and this includes whether the play was deemed “goal” or “no goal” by the referee.

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“It’s going to have to be exceptionally clear. They’re not going to go back and forth on offsides; was the puck over, was it not. You’re not getting that call,” added Maurice. “So, the whole idea with this is to clean those calls that just burn you for months and months and months and when you put that in the context of we had 99 points (last season) and found out we were in the playoffs in game 82, those calls, I mean they bother you for years. We’ve all had them and we still remember the referee that made the call, a lot of them fortunately for me have retired but you’re mad for the next three years because it’s that tight, the pressure is that great. So what the coach’s challenge does and I think it’s fantastic now, is it’s going to eliminate those.”

“So what’s going to happen is I’m going to challenge something on the ice, they’re going to put it on the Jumbotron and there’s going to be, in this building anyway, 15,000 people that agree with me and unless it’s absolutely clear that I’m right; and I think in the goals that they surveyed — and I’m going to get these numbers wrong, but it’s around 167 — they overturned about 7,” said Maurice. “You’re not going to win any arguments. The tie is not going to this runner and it’s not, even if I’m a foot ahead, but if the guy falls down midway between first and home plate you’re getting the call, if that made any sense.”

The coach’s challenge is new to NHL hockey but has been around in other sports for years, in some cases decades. The NFL first initiated a coach’s challenge in 1999, the CFL followed suit in 2006, with Major League baseball giving managers a chance to challenge a call for the start of the 2014 season.

The Jets won’t be able to test this new system yet, so for now they’re focus is on the two pre-season games left to prepare for the season. They face the Calgary Flames at MTS Centre Thursday night, a game Maurice said will feature the six guys absent from their 4-3 come-from-behind win over the Ottawa Senators Tuesday, the team’s first victory in five games so far.

Those players include forwards Anthony Peluso, J.C. Lipon, Thomas Raffl, and defencemen Jacob Trouba, Adam Pardy and Jay Harrison.

Jeff Hamilton
Multimedia producer

Jeff Hamilton is a sports and investigative reporter. Jeff joined the Free Press newsroom in April 2015, and has been covering the local sports scene since graduating from Carleton University’s journalism program in 2012. Read more about Jeff.

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