The NHL’s Public Relations team has released a video updating all of the rule changes for the upcoming season, agreed upon earlier this year. The five-minute video goes in-depth on each change, noting that the focus was on expanded video review, promoting player safety and encouraging more offense. The full list is as follows:
Video Review:
Referees will be required to review any major or match penalty, excluding fighting majors. The penalty can be confirmed or reduced to a minor penalty, but not completely rescinded.
The officials can also review any double-minor high-sticking penalty, and either confirm or rescind it if it wasn’t an opponent’s stick that caused the damage. It cannot be reduced to a minor penalty.
In both cases, review will not be used to call a penalty, only review. It also cannot be used to increase a penalty from a minor to a major.
Coaches Challenge:
In addition to offside and goaltender interference, coaches can now challenge plays in the offensive zone that should have resulted in a stoppage but did not prior to a goal. The examples given are pucks off the spectator netting, a hand pass or high-stick.
All three categories now result in a two-minute minor penalty for the first unsuccessful challenge, and a four-minute double-minor penalty for the second unsuccessful challenge. Plays in the final minute of the third period and overtime will be automatically reviewed by the league situation room.
Helmets:
Rule 9.6 – A player on the ice whose helmet comes off during play shall be assessed a minor penalty if he does not either exit the playing surface or retrieve and replace his helmet properly on his head within a reasonable amount of time.
“Reasonable” is at the discretion of the referee. A player who intentionally removes an opponent’s helmet, will be assessed a minor roughing penalty.
Line Changes:
Teams will no longer be allowed to execute a line change if their goalie initiates a stoppage on a puck shot from the other side of center, or if the net is unintentionally dislodged by a defensive skater (does not include the goaltender). In either case, time-outs are also not permitted.
Face-Offs:
Face-offs will take place in zone where puck was shot out of bounds from, regardless of which team shot it.
The offensive team will be allowed to choose which face-off location following an icing, following a goalie stoppage from behind the red line, following a defensive skater unintentionally dislodging the net, and on the first face-off to start a powerplay.
Video review is gonna kill this great sport.