NHL announces significant rule change for next season
Every year, the NHL and its rules committee look for ways to improve the game.
The league often makes slight tweaks to rules to try and handle situations better than they have over the past season, and that's precisely what the league announced last night. This season, the NHL has opted to only make one adjustment to the rulebook, but it's a significant one.
Going forward, on-ice officials will be allowed to use video replay to completely void a major penalty, rather than simply downgrading it to a minor penalty.
Here's the full rule according to 'Scouting the Refs':
Rule 20.6 previously only allowed the officials to confirm the original major penalty call or downgrade it to a minor. They now have a third option to wipe it out completely.
Here's the updated rule, change in bold:
The Referee shall have the following options after video review of his own call: (i) confirming his original Major Penalty call; (ii) reducing his original Major Penalty call to a lesser penalty; or (iii) rescinding the original Major Penalty altogether.
The old rule also required the officials to downgrade the penalty to a lesser penalty of the same infraction. That is no longer the case. A major boarding penalty could, after review, be downgraded to a minor for cross-checking.
This change does not apply to match penalty reviews.
Here's the updated rule, change in bold:
The Referee shall have the following options after video review of his own call: (i) confirming his original Major Penalty call; (ii) reducing his original Major Penalty call to a lesser penalty; or (iii) rescinding the original Major Penalty altogether.
The old rule also required the officials to downgrade the penalty to a lesser penalty of the same infraction. That is no longer the case. A major boarding penalty could, after review, be downgraded to a minor for cross-checking.
This change does not apply to match penalty reviews.
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