Goalies gripes fall on deaf ears
GMs unlikely to change any rules on equipment despite rash of bruises
With scoring up and equipment smaller, it was goaltending that dominated the season’s first meeting of NHL general managers.
They talked about embellishment, coach’s challenges and video review, but the league looks as if it’s going to stay the course with no major rule changes expected on any front.
“The big takeaway today is, we’re concerned about the goalies. We addressed a lot of their concerns. They’re impor- tant to their team,” said Colin Campbell, NHL director of hockey operations.
But the goalies — some of whom have been complaining about bruises since equipment was made smaller — might not like the league’s response to their complaints.
“There are forwards and there are defencemen that get bruises when they get hit with 100mile-an-hour shots,” said Campbell.
“We brought that to the GMs’ attention. They had no concern with it. We did address the fact we’re not going to tolerate goalies not being happy with calls. We’re getting a few goalies banging their sticks.”
The video review room in To- ronto now handles all coaching challenges, a change made in time for last season’s playoffs. Campbell said the call on the ice stands 80 per cent of the time.
“It’s the same with kicking the puck and other reviewed calls. There’s four of us in the room that are there for every game,” said Campbell.
It’s believed to be the first time in 15 years that the league is not considering a major change. There will be some minor tweaks to antiquated rules such as fines as low as $200. The managers will address that in the spring. The GMs did not discuss changing the division-based bracketed playoff formula that saw the league’s top two teams in terms of points, Nashville and Winnipeg, meet in the second round last spring.
Nor did they discuss approaching Canadian junior hockey leagues with a proposal that might allow all first-round picks to play in the minors. Currently, only European draftees can do that.
“This wasn’t the meeting to discuss that at length, and we’ll probably have a preparation meeting for that agreement with the CHL for the managers at some point in time,” said Campbell.
“I think we’ve got another year left in the agreement, so we wouldn’t change anything.”
The managers were also told — again — that the rules for Seattle’s expansion team will be identical to the rules for Vegas, which went to the Stanley Cup final in its first season.
Whether Seattle — which will get full approval at the board of governors meeting in December — will start play in either 2020 or 2021 still depends on when its rink is ready.
Campbell said the league will continue to issue weekly reports on diving. “We don’t want to become soccer,” he said.
“I think we’ve done a good job on that over the years of addressing embellishment. It’s not about embarrassing a player. It’s about informing the referees who the embellishers are.”