Jump to content

Coach's Challenge to be Discussed- Good? Bad?


ihabs1993

Recommended Posts

It has been reported that when the league's board of governors meets next, one of the topic of interest will be the implementation of a coach's challenge. Seems like a good idea, right? Human error has been an issue in this league for the past few years and it could be eliminated with this rule. But what will it do to the game? Some argue that it will make the game longer than it needs to be. 

 

Looking at the priorities of that argument makes one question whether or not the person arguing it is actually a fan of the game. You would rather get games done in 2 hours and 19 minutes, which has been very close to the average for the past few years (2003-04 average), than make sure the games get called correctly?

 

If anyone remembers what happened in the Kings-Red Wings game at "The Joe", they will be in favor of the coach's challenge. 

(Well, Kings fans will be anyway)

Kings lead by a goal with under a minute remaining in the third period. Red Wings have their goalie on the bench in a last ditch effort to tie the game. The Red Wing point-man takes a shot that is eventually blocked by a Kings defender, which launches the puck up into the mesh netting behind the Kings goal, which would be deemed out of play, resulting in a faceoff in the Kings end. However, this went unnoticed by every official on the ice. After the puck hit the netting, it took a miraculous bounce, hitting the back of Quick and landing in the net for the game tying goal. 

 

The goal would be reviewed, however a puck leaving the ice surface is not a reviewable play. The referee, knowing full well what had happened, could only say, "The puck crossed the goal line, therefore we have a good goal".

 

The Red Wings would end up winning the game in a shootout.

 

A coach's challenge, along with an expansion of instant replay, would have prevented this goal from counting. I hate to play this card, but what if the Kings had missed the playoffs by one point? And the Wings made it by one point? That's a blown game. 

 

But it ended in a reasonable time frame, so the integrity of the game is still blissfully intact. 

 

It should be clear at this point that I am a supporter of the coach's challenge. I don't think every play should be reviewed initially, but if Coach Sutter could have challenged that play in Detroit, the Kings would have had another chance to close out that game. 

 

What should be subject to review by challenge are pucks leaving play, offsides (I'm looking at you, Matt Duchesne), icings and select penalties. I say icing because with the new hybrid rules, the race to the dot can be easily reviewed and can ultimately save a team a defensive faceoff with tired players.

 

The penalties I would have reviewed are puck-over-the-glass, and most stick infractions. This review could also cut back on some of the diving that happens in our game. Of course, these are all still coach's challenge calls.

 

So this is the decision that the BOG has to make;

Is the length of the game more important than getting it right, or will we have to watch replays on TV over and over again thinking about what the game could be if the right calls were made?

 

Looking at the way the NFL does business, I think they've done an admirable job. I would only change one thing from the NFL rules and that is the timeout function of the rule. In the NFL, you need to have at least one time out remaining in order to use your challenge. This is used as collateral if your challenge fails. Since NHL teams only get one timeout per game, I don't think that's fair.

 

So, I would give teams one challenge per game that would not have any effect on timeouts or man power. If a team gets a challenge wrong, so what? I don't think a delay of game penalty would be necessary here.

 

What say you, hockey community?

 

Thanks for reading

Ian

ihabs1993

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good. This is something my wife suggested and I felt out people for their opinions in here a month or two ago. good to see the leagues board of governors reads the posts in here. :D

You and your wife should take great pride in the fact that you single handedly opened the door for this innovation!!!  :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great read @ihabs1993

 

I also am for coaches to have a red flag to throw for a questionable call if they choose for a goal or non- goal review.  For example, the offsides on the Aves before scoring a winning goal in the playoffs against the Wild.  The possibility of two extra timeouts isn't going to make much of a difference in game length.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 I would hope that as was discussed a or so when this came up, that a penalty would be called for delay of game when you use a challenge and lose.

  And here is another thing, maybe a delay of game could be called for all the chronic whining  if the coach or players choose to bitch at every stop of play without using their timeout. I am getting sick of watching these players and coaches constantly with their faces in a perpetual scowl screaming and whining on every play as if someone ran over their dog. Enough.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great read @ihabs1993

 

I also am for coaches to have a red flag to throw for a questionable call if they choose for a goal or non- goal review.  For example, the offsides on the Aves before scoring a winning goal in the playoffs against the Wild.  The possibility of two extra timeouts isn't going to make much of a difference in game length.

Thanks! There are countless examples of human error costing teams valuable games. The timeout issue is an interesting one, but I think one timeout is plenty. Imagine if you had 2-3 timeouts per game. Icings would almost have no effect because you could just call timeout. Still worthy of debate though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Good. This is something my wife suggested and I felt out people for their opinions in here a month or two ago. good to see the leagues board of governors reads the posts in here. :D

Your wife makes suggestions on how to make hockey better?! The suggestions my wife makes would not clear the Board's censor.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Your wife makes suggestions on how to make hockey better?! The suggestions my wife makes would not clear the Board's censor.

Damn good woman, she loves Hockey almost as much as I do, whenever we are travelling she scouts out the sports card stores where we are going. As long as she can put up with me, that woman aint going nowhere, lol.

 

  Anyway, we love the idea of instant replay, several different ways it can work.

 

1 per game.

If you have your timeout and use the replay and lose you lose your timeout.

if you have already have used your timeout and lose when you use your replay, you get a 2 minute penalty for delay of game.

 

That is what we came up with. Pretty simple. Of course the league loves to make things complicated and change rules a dozen different times in a dozen different years so who knows what they will come up with and what the final result would be.

 

The last one we came up with is if you win a challenge, someone on your team gets to punch Bettman in the nose at center ice.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

NO to reviewing the icings.  That just allows the offending team to rest their players while the officials review the play.  And if the officials were correct what is the penalty?  They lose a timeout they didn't have anymore anyway?  If you're going to allow it, there have to be guidelines on how it could be used.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The offsides/icing thing is a slippery slope. Can you challenge any offsides/icing? What happens if the questionable offsides/icing call happens, then another couple minutes go by on the ice before a stoppage? Can you challenge immediately after the questionable call, stopping the play dead? Or would you have to wait until the next stoppage? I think offsides/icing that lead to a goal could be reviewed, but again how far back do you go? If a questionable offsides/icing took place two minutes before a goal is scored, can you review it? Not all blown offsides/icing calls immediately lead to a goal.

Edited by MadDevil
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...