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NHL Coaches Challenge Effective, Still Bad For Game

By Tim Redinger

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The NHL coaches challenge is a new rule that coaches, players, fans, and media have to get used to – because like it or not, the coaches challenge is part of the rules and is here to stay, at least for this season.  So far, the NHL has seen bad goals called back on an account of coaches challenging plays that resulted in goals.

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By not testing it out in the preseason however, the NHL has allowed a negative effect to creep into the game, and that is a delay in action, causing many fans to be disoriented on the rule, and open to complaining about it.  Now, full disclosure here for anyone who doesn’t know it, yes – I am a Buffalo Sabres fan, and yes – the outcome of the Buffalo Sabres game last night was directly related to the coaches challenge.

That being said, the NHL got the call right last night, it should not have been a goal.  The Ottawa Senators outplayed the Sabres last night, and Evander Kane’s goal was erased from the score sheet.  That I don’t have a problem with.

The problem with this rule change, is it is going to hopefully positively effect the outcome of games, especially when they matter the most, however the NHL did not do a “test-run” when games didn’t matter to see how it would affect the flow of the game.

I digress to last nights game.  It was very clear to me, even before Kane scored that the goal was going to be reviewed, and would likely be coming back, keeping the game at 2-1.  What baffled my mind was the time it took for the referees to review the play.  One look at the replay showed that Zemgus Girgensons was off-sides, and the play should have been whistled dead.

It didn’t even take a replay to see that the play was off-sides. Why did was the resulting replay delay as long as it was? Certainly having the goal disallowed took a lot of wind out of the sails of the Buffalo Sabres. What killed their momentum even more was the result of such a lengthy delay in getting the call made right.

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Give the NHL a lot of credit, they put a measure in place to make sure the on ice officials make the right call and games are scored fairly. It isn’t that I have a problem with, it is the way the rule is written that I have a problem with.

Coaches must have a time out available to use the challenge. The only recourse for losing the challenge is not being able to use your time out later in the game.  Let me remind the readers of a lesser used rule that is already on the books that can be called into action by a similar “challenge”, and that is the rule regarding the measuring of a possible illegal stick.

In the NHL Rule Book, rule 10.5 allows for a captain or assistant captain to ask the referee to measure the stick of a player on the ice to ensure that it complies with the measurements outlined in rule 10.1. Granted, I vaguely remember the last time that this rule was called into action.

The result of a failed challenge, a two minute minor bench penalty to the team that initiated the challenge.  I can see coaches trying to manipulate their timeouts later in the season and in the playoffs, by challenging close calls that they know they aren’t going to win, to slow the momentum of a game down, or even get his team a much needed, longer timeout to make adjustments.

So far the NHL coaches challenge has been a success in getting the calls right, but it is only a matter of time before teams and coaches adapt to what the league thinks is in the best interest of the game, and use it to their advantage, and not to the advantage of the game.

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