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10 Rule Changes The NHL Must Implement To Improve The Game

By Ken MacMillan

DALLAS, TX - MARCH 20: NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman addresses members of the media as the Dallas Stars and the NHL host a press conference for the upcoming Bridgestone Winter Classic 2020 at the Cotton Bowl on March 20, 2019 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Glenn James/NHLI via Getty Images)
DALLAS, TX - MARCH 20: NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman addresses members of the media as the Dallas Stars and the NHL host a press conference for the upcoming Bridgestone Winter Classic 2020 at the Cotton Bowl on March 20, 2019 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Glenn James/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images
Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images /

9. Stop Calling Back So Many Goals

The NHL could use more scoring. Sure, a huge save is exciting. A big, clean hit is great. Watching a player stickhandle through traffic get you to the edge of your seat. However, the one thing that really gets thousands of fans in a building and around the world fired up is a goal.

The NHL does a great job stifling goal scoring. From microscopic offsides that bring back a goal to reviewing scoring plays to make sure a player didn’t knock it in with his shin. The league goes to great distances to make sure pucks enter the net in a very specific manner.

To boil the rule down and point out where it currently makes no sense, is that you can accidentally put the puck in with any part of your body, but you can’t intentionally propel it in with anything but your stick. Except, you are allowed to deflect it with anything you want. So, you can turn your body and allow it to “accidentally” hit your foot and go in. However, you can not put the puck in with your knee.

Huh? Why not just let players knock the puck into the net any way they can. I can see players not being allowed to throw it into the net. But that’s because you aren’t allowed to close your hand on the puck anyway. However, if someone is skilled enough to bat a puck out of the air with his elbow and knock it in, they should count it.

Allow me to introduce some video evidence to illustrate the foolishness of this rule. These goals all count.

But this one is disallowed?

So, if Kris Draper gets hit in the mandible because he didn’t see the puck coming and it ends up in the net, that’s fine. But when Andrew Shaw shows unbelievable hand (head)-eye coordination and jumps into the air and headbutts a puck in the net, that’s illegal? Come on, that Shaw goal should not only count but should be on every highlight reel in the world to this day.

To that end, just let players kick the puck in as well. It’s supposedly dangerous to allow that, but it’s not like these players are going to be pulling bicycle kicks like Pele. And if they do, give them a goal, that’s freaking amazing. They can kick the puck anywhere else on the ice, so why not into the net?

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