New York Rangers: Takeaways from the World Championships day one

Takeaway #2: International rules

There are some differences between NHL and international hockey.  The most obvious is the ice surface. In the NHL the ice surface is 200 feet long and 85 feet wide.  International ice rinks are the same length, but are 100 feet wide.

As you watch international competition, the additional 15 feet makes a big difference.  Skaters have a lot more room to work with and skilled stickhandlers can really show off their ability.   Increasing the size of NHL rinks is a non-starter since it will mean fewer spectators and that means less revenue. Oh well.

Although there is little chance of the size of the rink changing in the NHL, there is one rule on the IIHF books that is worth taking a look at:

"“Rule 534 – Interference – If an attacking player deliberately stands in the goal crease, without interfering with the goalkeeper, the referee shall stop the play and the ensuing face-off shall take place at the nearest face-off spot in the neutral zone.”"

Rule 534 is pretty simple.  A player stands in the goal crease, play is whistled dead.  As a result, in international play, offensive players stay out of the crease greatly reducing the number of instances of goalie interference.

Since there is no such rule in the NHL, offensive players will position themselves in the goal crease so long as it doesn’t interfere with the goaltender, often resulting in them being checked into the goalie or into the net by a defender, resulting in lengthy review and goalie interference calls.

In the 1991-92 season, the NHL went to a variation of that rule, disallowing any goal if the puck entered the net while an attacking player was in the goal crease or on the crease line or even if his stick was in the crease.

This led to a lot of disputed goals, most famous of which was the 1999 Stanley Cup winning goal scored by Brett Hull.  He scored in triple overtime though his skate was in the crease.  The refs missed it and Buffalo lost the game.  As a result, before the next season the rule was changed so that goals would count if there was no interference with the goalie and the league allowed video review to determine if there was interference.

At any rate, it’s a rule the NHL should consider.

Takeaway #3: Overtime rules

Just as the tournament started, the IIHF voted to adopt new rules regarding overtime.   Here are the old rules.

Prior to this seasons in the preliminary round the teams played five minutes of three on three followed by a shootout.In the playoff round, the teams played 10 minutes of four on four followed by a shootout, except in the gold medal game when the overtime was 20 minutes.

The new rules call for the same criteria as before in the preliminary round.  Now, in the playoff round the teams will play ten minutes of three on three followed by a shootout.  The only exception will be the gold medal game which will be played three on three in 20 minutes overtimes until there is a winner.  The result is you can no longer win the gold medal game by shootout.

It will be interesting to see how many games are determined within the ten minutes of three on three hockey. It’s a rule that the NHL could adopt for the regular season if they want to get away from the shootout, derided by many as a skills competition used to determine the outcome of games.