Offside rulings for the New York Rangers will be a little different this season
If the image of a New York Rangers player awkwardly dragging his foot on the ice in order to stay onside drove you crazy, it won’t happen anymore. Now, the skate doesn’t have to be in contact with the ice, it needs to “break the plane.”
Here is the offside rule. The new language is in italics:
83.1 Off-side – Players of the attacking team must not precede the puck into the attacking zone.
The position of the player’s skates and not that of his stick shall be the determining factor in all instances in deciding an off-side. A player is off-side when both skates are completely over the leading edge of the blue line involved in the play.
A player is on-side when either of his skates are in contact with the blue line, or on his own side of the line, at the instant the puck completely crosses the leading edge of the blue line. On his own side of the line shall be defined by a “plane” of the blue line which shall extend from the leading edge of the blue line upwards. If a player’s skate has yet to break the “plane” prior to the puck crossing the leading edge, he is deemed to be on-side for the purpose of the off-side rule.
According to the Scouting the refs website (https://scoutingtherefs.com), there were 75 coach’s challenges for offsides last season. 56 goals (75%) were overturned and this rule would have resulted in a some of them still counting.
The Rangers won their only challenge for offside in a game versus Carolina a year ago. They also lost one goal due to an offside challenge in a January game against the Islanders.
Does this mean the end to coach’s challenges for offsides? Nope, it just means that instead of looking to see if the skate is still on the ice when crossing into the offensive zone, it mean the video will be scrutinized to see if the player’s skate cleared the plane.
It’s not going to be easier to determine, in fact it may be harder. The good news is the unnatural dragging of the skate won’t happen anymore.
Besides the rule change, the NHL also issued protocols for COVID-19. positive tests and travel. These are lengthy, complicated documents and every detail spelled out.
The next step is the release of the official 2021 scheduled.