Jets fans must adjust to rule changes

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This article was published 06/10/2015 (3857 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Hockey fans will need to be prepared for rule changes for the 2015-16 NHL season, two of them significant.

The league has voted to introduce three-on-three overtime, which was seen multiple times in the pre-season, as well as an option for a coach’s challenge to certain calls on goals.

The NHL has also revised its faceoff procedures.

Overtime: The three-on-three play for five minutes (or less) of overtime is designed to reduce the number of games going to a shootout.

It did exactly that in the full-season experiment conducted by the AHL last season.

During the NHL’s 2015 pre-season, the result was similar, as 42 of the 59 tied games ended with a goal in overtime to earn the extra point. That’s 71.2 per cent. Only 44.4 per cent of games ended in overtime last season.

Penalties will cause four-on-three or five-on-three situations. No team will ever have fewer than three players on the ice (plus goalie). There will also be instances (like one in Winnipeg in the pre-season) where there is four-on-four hockey if play continues after penalties expire. In this case, the return to three-on-three doesn’t take place until the next stoppage in play.

Teams that pull their goalie in overtime (except for delayed penalties) risk losing their regulation one point if their opponents score into the empty net.

When a game is tied after 60 minutes, the ice will be shovelled, not resurfaced, before overtime starts and teams will change ends.

Challenge: A coach may challenge goal calls only in limited circumstances (Rule 78.7).

A team must have its time-out available in order to challenge. A coach can then call his time-out and request a review of a goal that may have been off-side, a goal call that may have involved goalie interference, or a no-goal call because goalie interference was called.

In the matter of off-side, the team scored upon may ask for the review only if the puck does not come outside its zone between the time of the alleged off-side and the goal.

In the matter of the goalie interference, the officials will review whether a goal should have been disallowed because of the interference, or whether a no-goal call should be reversed because there was no actual contact by the attacking player, or the attacking player was pushed or fouled into the goalie or if the attacking player’s position in the crease did not actually impair the goalie’s ability to defend the play.

In the final minute of regulation and in overtime, the league’s hockey operations war room will initiate any review.

The league will place technology (computer screen, TV or tablet) in penalty boxes so that on-ice officials may review any scenario with the Toronto video room.

A challenge that does not overturn the call made will result in the team losing its time-out.

Faceoffs: At centre-ice faceoffs, the visiting player is required to put his stick down first.

At all other faceoffs, the new rule requires the defending player (the team whose goal is closest to the faceoff dot) to put his stick down first.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca