NHL GMs attempt to solve mysteries of goalie interference, diving
BOCA RATON, Fla. – The sun shined. The pool glistened. The beach beckoned. But for hours at a posh resort Monday, NHL general managers broke up into small groups, holed up in meeting rooms and discussed hockey minutiae. The main topics: goalie interference, diving and embellishment, and emergency goaltenders.
They’ll discuss them again as one group Tuesday, as well as the biggest topics of this year’s three-day meeting: 3-on-3 overtime and video review of goalie interference. If the GMs recommend a rule change, it goes to the competition committee and the board of governors. No recommendations have been made yet.
“Things seem anal until you get into Game 6 and 7 in the playoffs,” said Colin Campbell, NHL senior vice president of hockey operations. “They’re not anal anymore. They’re important.”
-- Goalie interference: First, before getting into video review of goalie interference, the GMs went over what exactly constitutes goalie interference. They don’t want to go back to disallowing goals because of the black-and-white, toe-in-the-crease rule. But that means the call is subjective, and that means there will be debate.
“We want these guys to tell us: What is crease presence?” Campbell said. “When should a play be called off?”
Should the standard be different between a goalie who plays deep in his crease, like the New York Rangers’ Henrik Lundqvist, and one who plays at the top of the paint? Should it matter if the goalie gives his opponent more room?
The GMs looked at examples on video. For the most part, they felt the referees got the call right on the ice. But sometimes they not only disagreed with the referees, they disagreed with each other.
“It sounds so simple,” said the Dallas Stars’ Jim Nill. “If you talk to someone watching a game, they might say, ‘Why wouldn’t you call that?’ But when you are sitting in a room watching them, they are not clear cut. Understand that the referees are seeing things full speed at 100 mph. It’s difficult.”
Should the NHL use video review because the game is so fast? Should the NHL not use it because it will create delays and not everyone agrees, anyway? The Pittsburgh Penguins’ Jim Rutherford said he felt there was enough support for the GMs to recommend using it. Others weren’t sure.
“There was some good discussion today to kick things off,” said the Calgary Flames’ Brad Treliving. “We’ll see what the next couple of days bring.”
-- Diving and embellishment: To crack down on diving and embellishment, hockey ops department tracking it this season. First offense, a player receives a warning. Second offense, a $2,000 fine – announced publicly. From there, the fines go to $3,000, $4,000 and $5,000. Starting with the fifth offense, the head coach is fined, too.
The GMs looked at video of incidents over the past week and went through the same exercise hockey ops has all season. The results of a poll will be given to the group Tuesday, educating the GMs on the process and making a point.
“It’s not easy on video review,” Campbell said, “but it’s much easier on video review than it is on the ice.”
Hockey ops asked the GMs whether they would like the league to inform the referees about divers and embellishers, because it’s such a hard call for a referee to make. The results of that poll will be given Tuesday, too.
It’s not like the refs don’t already know, though.
“It’s pretty obvious when you do as many games as they do and talk, there’s going to be some discussions among the referees,” said the Edmonton Oilers’ Craig MacTavish. “Nobody likes to get shown up on a call. They can be a vindictive group at times, as we all know. So if they do get shown up through a dive, that’s going to travel quickly through the ranks. I don’t take this as really anything new. It’s more of a formalized process to share that information.”
-- Emergency goaltenders: The Florida Panthers recently had two goaltenders injured in the same game, and they had trouble clearing goaltending coach Robb Tallas to dress. Campbell stressed how rare the situation was.
“For the first time in 21,823 games, we ran out of goalies,” Campbell said. “So what do we do now the next time it happens in 21,223 games? In all seriousness, though, we’ve talked about this before, and we’ve beaten it up, and we’ve been close many times. But what happens again when it happens?”
Any novel ideas?
“We’re going to take a straw poll of what media member we’re totally unhappy with and stick him in there,” Campbell joked.
The most likely solution: Designating emergency goalies ahead of time so there are no issues in the heat of the moment if they are needed.
“We discussed it, and it needs a little more discussion,” said Rutherford, a former NHL goaltender himself. “We agree that having somebody, a third goalie available, not necessarily a guy that’s on contract, makes some sense. We don’t want to get into the same situation as Florida did – and it won’t be me.”
-- One more thing: If the NHL introduces a coach’s challenge, should it include video review for delay of game when pucks are shot over the glass? Hockey ops would not add penalties, only take them away.
“It’s a difficult one to assess from our vantage point in Toronto,” Campbell said. “But do you guys want us to help the officials in that case?”
