Dallas Stars Games Could've Ended Different With New Rules

The NHL and NHLPA Competition Committee issued a statement on Thursday in regards to potential rule changes set in place before the 2015-2016 season.

Here is the statement via NHL.com:

NEW YORK — Co-chairs of the NHL / NHLPA Competition Committee – Mathieu Schneider, National Hockey League Players’ Association (NHLPA) Special Assistant to the Executive Director, and Colin Campbell, National Hockey League (NHL) Senior Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations – issued the following statement on new rules recommendations after the Competition Committee met today in New York:

Expanded Video Review: Coach’s Challenge – The Committee recommends that a Coach’s Challenge be adopted for expanded video review for goals that may have resulted from (1) goaltender interference and (2) offside plays. The video review process and all decisions on goals where goaltender interference may have occurred will be the responsibility of the Referees at ice level, in consultation with the NHL’s Situation Room in Toronto; similarly, goals that may have resulted from an offside play will be reviewed and determined by the on-ice officials, in consultation with the NHL’s Situation Room in Toronto. In order for a coach to make a challenge, the team must have its timeout available.

Face-Offs – The Committee recommends a change to the face-off rule, whereby, for all face-offs in the defensive zone, the player from the defensive zone team must put down his stick first. For face-offs at center ice, the rule will remain the same, requiring that the visiting team player put his stick down first.

Overtime – There was considerable discussion of changing the current overtime format but no consensus was reached. The NHLPA and NHL will continue discussions in the coming weeks on potential changes with the intention for the Committee to make a decision on overtime later this month. There will be no changes to the shootout format.

The new rules recommendations still require approval by the NHLPA’s Executive Board and the NHL’s Board of Governors, at which point the language of the rules will be formalized.

This puts in place an interesting situation for next year. It’s presumed that the majority of players, coaches, and fans are in support of these new changes, and would even enjoy an overtime change. Otherwise, the changes wouldn’t even be suggested.

But it would’ve been nice to have these changes in place for the 2014-2015 season. At least two Stars games would have had a different look to them:

October 16th, 2014:

The Dallas Stars took on the Pittsburgh Penguins in just their fourth game of the season. The Stars were down 2-1 late in the game. With under five minutes to go in the game, Tyler Seguin found himself on a breakaway and headed for the opposition’s net. As Seguin took his shot, Evgeni Malkin tripped him up with his skate and sent Seguin crashing into Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. The goal was called off because Seguin was pinpointed for goalie interference. Though the goal was disallowed, the referees could have noted that Seguin was tripped and therefore was forced to make contact with Fleury. Though the Stars won this game, it could have been an easier win instead of in the last ten seconds.

February 3, 2015:

The Dallas Stars were in a tight one with the Colorado Avalanche that pushed to a shootout. In the ninth round, the Avs were pinned in a win or go home scenario. Needing a goal to keep the game alive, Gabriel Landeskog brought the puck in with steam and slid it past Kari Lehtonen while simultaneously crashing into him. Although the puck slid into the net while the collision began, it could have been challenged and reviewed. A goaltender is supposed to have complete range of motion while attempting to make a save, and Landeskog was at least partially in his way. The Stars ended up losing this one and dropped a spare point.

February 21, 2015:

The Dallas Stars were in an offensive battle with the Detroit Red Wings. Up 6-5 with just 1:48 to go, Justin Abdelkader was in a scruff in front of the net and snuck in a shove that put Kari Lehtonen in the net and gave Pavel Datsyuk an open net to score on. The goalie interference was blatantly obvious, but the referees did not review it. A challenge would have helped more than enough, and the Stars could have walked away with the second point that ended up escaping them.

These are just a few examples that could fall in the Stars favor should they happen next year under the new rule change. Either way, it’s a good thing some of these calls are finally being fixed.

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