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NHL releases its rule book changes, we try to translate them to English

New York Rangers v Philadelphia Flyers

of the New York Rangers of the Philadelphia Flyers on April 11, 2010 at Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Jim McIsaac

The NHL released alterations to the league’s rule book this weekend and a lot of it reads like, well, legal speak. (Click here to see a detailed list of all the changes.)

That being said, I thought I’d point out some of the most interesting changes, even if we covered many of them throughout the summer. It’s a nice snapshot of the changes that were made by a league that experienced a mostly successful 2009-10 season but has plenty of room to improve. Now, to the bullet points.

  • The rule book reflects the many subtle changes being made to goalie equipment. We were all over this subject earlier this summer, but those tweaks will give you a good idea of the amount of differences. Even if you probably won’t be able to make much of an eye-ball distinction.
  • Want confirmation that hits to the head will be given additional emphasis? There will even be a special signal for the penalty, as described in the new rule book: “Patting flat (open palm) of the non-whistle hand on this side of the head.”
  • An interesting change to what a video goal judge can call a goal. Here’s the explanation, with the intriguing new addition in bold face.

The video review process shall be permitted to assist the referees in determining the legitimacy of all potential goals (e.g. to ensure they are “good hockey goals”). For example (but not limited to), pucks that enter the net by going through the net meshing, pucks that enter the net from underneath the net frame, pucks that enter the net undetected by the referee, etc.

Interesting stuff. I assume that this doesn’t kill the “intent to blow” rule altogether, but it sounds like it gives video judges a little more flexibility. Or it just changes the language of the rule.
  • I haven’t heard of this new rule yet: when a team bats in a goal illegally (for example, scoring with a high stick), the faceoff will take place in the neutral zone instead of the defending team’s zone. This actually seems more fair since you cannot be sure the alternate universe legal version of the play would have resulted in a faceoff in that zone.
  • There are also some changes to the legal sizes of sticks and a few tweaks to protect goalies, but I’ll spare you the details because they’re super specific (and kind of boring).

So that is the Cliff’s Notes version of the rule book changes. Click here if you want more details or want to read the full list. Don’t worry, I won’t judge you for matching my dorkiness.