TORONTO — Could the NHL one day implement some NBA-style rules for three-on-three overtime?
The NHL general managers met Tuesday morning in downtown Toronto to discuss a variety of issues around the game. One thing that consumed a significant amount of oxygen was the conversation around whether overtime has become a bit stale.
In the past, there’s been some discussion around extending overtime beyond the five-minute period we have now, possibly in conjunction with eliminating the shootout. Colin Campbell, senior vice-president, hockey operations for the NHL said those potential changes are not top of mind right now as much as examining ways to curb certain trends under the current format. Certainly the three-on-three set up has thrilling moments, but there’s a sense it has become too much of a possession game, with teams more than happy to drift back into their own zone with the puck to make a line change or simply regroup for a better look on the attack.
“We don’t mind the format, the one thing we don’t like is it that [teams and players] have decided that possession is key and you get those boot-back, kick-backs all the time,” Campbell said.
So how do you create more scoring urgency? The NBA obviously has its 24-second shot clock, which requires teams to put up an attempt in that timeframe or surrender possession of the ball. While that concept was likely at least raised, the harder look would probably be at something that mirrors basketball’s over-and-back rule, which means you cannot take the ball back into your half of the court once you’ve crossed centre with it.
In NHL terms that could mean not being able to circle back to your own side of the redline once you’ve gained centre ice or perhaps even making the blue line a cut off once you’ve skated the puck into the opponent’s end. While there could be something implement there, Campbell and company are also leery of any new rules that would halt play.
“We don’t want more whistles; we don’t want more faceoffs, he said. “So it’s something we told [the GMs] to take back to their coaches to see if they’ve got some good information we can use for the March meeting.”
Yes, most of what was talked about today serves as an appetizer for the spring meetings, which are a longer, three-day affair where the final call on whether or not to move forward with a concept or change is usually made.
Another item that could be picked up at that time is the notion of allowing any skater on a team to take a penalty shot — as is the case in soccer — as opposed to the fouled player being required to shoot. The concept of a decentralized draft, where each team would remain in its own city versus all gathering in one spot, is also something that will continue to simmer on the back-burner until a later date.
The most important point of business likely came in the form of the information the GMs received from Rod Pasma regarding the development and use of cut-resistant equipment. The issue came into prominence in awful fashion last month when Adam Johnson, a former Pittsburgh Penguin, was killed after taking a skate blade to the neck during an Elite Hockey League game in the U.K.
Pasma, the NHL’s vice president, hockey operations, told GMs the technology has come a long way from where it was a decade ago.
“The message to the managers [was], when we first started this a long time ago — 10-plus years ago — the options for the players weren’t [as optimal] as they need to be,” Pasma said. “As it sits here today, there are plenty of options for the players to wear it any category, whether it be the neck, the wrist, the sock, there’s patches. So I think that [oppressive] element of cut protection has disappeared, meaning if you think something’s too hot, if you think it’s too heavy, there are options for you to look at that that’ll fix those issues.”
As tends to happen in these situations, the NHL clubs are talking to their minor-league affiliates and there’s a chance we’ll see it become the norm at lower levels and filter up. As it stands, several NHLers have taken the initiative themselves to start wearing cut-resistant material, a move the GMs — including Edmonton’s Ken Holland — obviously stand behind.
“Last year, when we had Evander Kane have that situation in in Tampa, more of our players [started] wearing cut-resistant things on their own,” Holland said, referring to the Oilers winger missing about two months of action when he was cut on the wrist by the skate blade of Pat Maroon just over a year ago. “We had a full, big report on that [topic] and what the league is trying to do. Certainly we’re encouraging all our players to wear to cut-resistant material.”