NHL Says Stricter Faceoff Rules To Protect Players & Increase Integrity

The NHL is not looking to introduce new rules for faceoffs but have asked officials to be more strict in enforcing the old rules so that the integrity of faceoffs are maintained and that both players and linesmen have more safety and protection.

The NHL has experimented with these stricter faceoffs during the pre-season games this week and the stricter rules left many players in disbelief as they were sent off for merely waving their sticks in a general area that was close to their opponents gloves.

Centres were also quickly sent out of their faceoff circles and the penalty boxes were quite full. The NHL wanted to turn on the heat this season in order to reduce and prevent the number of times players were getting slashed to their hands and arms.

During the first 8 pre-season games, a total of 9 penalties and 49 slashing calls were made due to faceoff violations. As per NHL rules, during a faceoff , players have to keep their feet behind the lines and face their opponent squarely. However it has become common practice for centres to cheat by trying to gain an advantage by moving as close as they can to the faceoff dots in order to get as much advantage as they can over their opponents.

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As a result, a number of players started clashing and banging their heads even before the puck was placed on the faceoff dot. Now if a player is caught cheating during a faceoff, they will be replaced in the faceoff by a teammate. If the team commits a second offense in the same faceoff, they will be hit with a 2 minute penalty. A stricter enforcement of the old rules during the pre-season games caught players off-guard and a number of them were penalized.

In a statement, NHL centre Peter Holland said

Faceoffs are a game within a game. If you're not cheating, you're just cheating yourself. It's a question of who can get away with more of it. Puck possession is such a huge factor in the game right now. Especially when you start in the offensive zone. You want to sustain O-zone time. It plays a bigger role than people give it credit for.

The NHL has looked to enforce stricter rules on different fouls in the past but as the season goes on, the enforcement slowly fizzes out. Players will have to be careful during the faceoffs this season or at least till the NHL decides to relax its enforcement.