The Champions Hockey League is a season-long tournament involving elite teams in Europe. The CHL is instituting some interesting rule changes:
• Minor penalties serve the full two minutes, even if a power-play goal is scored.
• If a goal is scored during a delayed penalty, the penalty still is served.
• If a team scores short-handed, their penalty is over.
The NHL should adopt all these rules immediately. Put emphasis on scoring and attacking. Make infractions more costly.
Imagine the Penguins in 1988-89 when Mario Lemieux tallied an NHL-record 13 short-handed goals. He’d have netted a shorty, then scored at even-strength 15 seconds later. Like Lemieux’s level of attack needed any prodding.
One likely problem with these adjustments: The reaction of NHL referees might be to call fewer penalties because they would see the disadvantage to the offending team as too steep. (If you don’t believe that, you don’t watch much NHL hockey.)
Prior to the 1956-57 season, the full two minutes of a penalty got served. But Montreal’s insanely potent power play in 1955-56 put an end to that. The Canadiens’ Jean Beliveau once scored three power-play goals in 44 seconds. The NHL voted to cripple quality.
Here’s another change that would make the NHL better: USA Hockey uses a rule for youth competition that prohibits players from icing the puck while short-handed. It’s treated like icing 5-on-5: Faceoff deep in the offending team’s zone.
That’s a great rule: It makes you play hockey. No lazy shortcuts. Hockey legislates too many shortcuts into the game.
But the NHL won’t adopt any of these changes. If hockey got more exciting, more people might watch. Who needs that?
