At their annual March meeting this week in Boca Raton, Fla., NHL general managers will debate changes to the coach’s challenge system that has gotten some calls right but caused plenty of problems in its first season.
The coach’s challenge for goals on potential goaltender-interference situations or offside plays has come under fire for inconclusive results, long video reviews and delay tactics. Ideas to tweak the system include allowing the league situation room to decide the reviews, making an unsuccessful challenge a penalty and even simply adding more cameras for more replay angles.
“I think there’s challenges with the challenge,” New Jersey Devils GM Ray Shero said. “I don’t know what needs to change. I’m looking forward to hearing all the different opinions from the GMs and certainly from the league on what the challenges have been.”
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Unlike 3-on-3 overtime, which is drawing rave reviews for its entertainment value and reduction in shootouts, the coach’s challenge hasn’t been a flawless addition to games. Through the first 1,029 games, just 55-of-216 coach’s challenges were overturned.
Most are well-intentioned, and those upheld cost a coach his timeout. But the notion that some coaches are challenging goals just to give their teams a longer breather led to the idea of making an unsuccessful one a delay-of-game penalty.
Shero said he likes that idea in concept but added that the lingering gray area over goaltender interference could make it a problem. Winnipeg Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff is more concerned about getting offside plays right by having some more camera angles.
“The hard part for me is that I think a lot of the challenges, at least that we’ve been a part of, there’s been an inconclusive type of remedy to it,” Che veldayoff said. “If a foot’s lifted, a foot’s not lifted and it literally just depends on do you have enough camera angles or not to make that right ruling.”
The NHL is trying to get it right, but many video reviews this season have taken several minutes. Those lengthy delays have been the subject of criticism, but Detroit Red Wings GM Ken Holland is of the opinion that it’s better to take time than be wrong.
