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Buffalo Sabres Round Table: Competition Committee And Rule Changes

By Tim Redinger

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The most talked about things in the 716 right now are the Buffalo Sabres and the NHL Draft Lottery.  But there is still so much more out there happening in the hockey world, outside of where Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel will end up when the General Managers and staff gather for the Draft.

There has been plenty of talk about the overtime being changed, and right now it is in the hands of the competition committee – so we thought, good time to convene the SabreNoise round table for the third time and get the opinions of the Buffalo Sabres fans writing for FanSided and get your opinions too.  So read away on our thoughts on what rules the NHL needs to consider to improve its product, both off and on the ice.

While most of our writers focused on the on-ice product, there could be something said about the honesty of the NHL draft lottery, the free agency system, arbitration. There are a number of things that the NHL could could consider tinkering with, to make the game more worthwhile for fans, players, teams, and sponsors alike.

The NHL made some bold changes before the 2014-2015 NHL season, and there is no reason to believe that more changes won’t be made before teams reconvene for the 2015-2016 season.

Not everyone is a fan of rule changes – some people just don’t like change, other don’t understand it.

The rule changes being considered for the 2015-2016 regular season are:

Overtime adjustment not to eliminate shootouts, but make them less important and more in-frequent.

Changes to who has to put their stick down first on a faceoff.  Currently the visiting player has to put his stick down first, “home-ice advantage” if you will.  Now the player closest to his goalie will have to put his stick down first, favoring the offense.  Faceoffs at center ice will still go visitor stick down first.

The coaches challenge is currently being reviewed as well.  Presently the only thing that can be reviewed at the urging of an opposing team is the illegal curve of a stick.  Now the league wants to start allowing coaches to challenge goaltender interference.

I get the fact that they don’t want to turn into the NFL, where coaches can challenge jut about anything, ok that is just an exaggeration, they can only challenge certain things.  Sure the NFL can’t challenge penalties (missed or called wrong) – but the NHL can learn and adapt – but I think in a limited instance hockey coaches should be able to challenge calls (Arizona could have used that last night against the Buffalo Sabres when Brian Gionta covered the puck with his hand).

Limit it to goalie interference, the “puck over the glass” penalty (looking for a deflection), the rare case when high sticking is called and it was the players own stick that hit him.

The rule changes can’t go into effect until they are approved by the NHLPA and the competition committee – but they stand a real good chance at being adopted.

What say you oh constant reader and loyal fan?  What rules would you like to see the NHL take a look at?

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