After another disappointing loss at the hands of the Winnipeg Jets last night, the Buffalo Sabres were back on the ice today trying to right the ship. Unfortunately, things didn’t go so smoothly. According to Amy Moritz of the Buffalo News, Zach Bogosian was helped off the ice unable to put weight on his left leg.
Not only that, but tempers appear to be flaring as according to Bill Hoppe of Buffalo Hockey Beat, Evander Kane and Justin Falk got into a shoving match with the latter calling the former “selfish.” Things haven’t gone according to plan for the Sabres this year, who are now in the midst of a five-game losing streak and just three points ahead of the Arizona Coyotes for last place in the NHL.
- ISS Hockey and Jeff Marek of Sportsnet each released their new draft rankings today, with both agreeing that Rasmus Dahlin has solidified his position as the no-doubt first-overall pick in June’s draft. After that though, the lists diverge with Marek leaving Andrei Svechnikov in the second spot while ISS has moved Brady Tkachuk into that position. The remaining top 10 is a mixed bag, and should make for an incredibly interesting draft day with teams having very different boards.
- While the entire league is wondering whether the current offside review process will stay the same after another “skate blade incident” for the Edmonton Oilers last night, Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic reports that NHL Director of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell will bring up the issue once again at the GM meetings in March. There is a growing belief that the rule should be changed to that of a endzone-type plane that extends straight up, so that a player’s skate doesn’t necessarily need to be touching the ice to be onside.
The “endzone” rule might make some review decisions easier, but the MAJOR downside is that players have been playing their whole lives in every league, not just the NHL, with the current offside rule, so changing won’t be easy. Sure, a missed offside call leads to a goal every once in a while. How many marginal minor penalty calls lead to power play goals? More than a few. And how many missed minor penalty calls would have led to power play goals? We obviously can’t know but I’d bet it would be far more than the number of missed offsides. I’m all for better officiating, but this is a silly area to expend effort.
Scott Stevens had a good idea on NHL Network…
Change the rule from the puck having to cross the entire blue line to any part of the puck crossing the blue line. This would effectively give the players an extra foot or so of ice to work with and cut down on the number of offside plays in general.
They do need to at least adjust the offside rule. There should be a time limit where the potential offside (assuming it was not called and then challenged) doesn’t affect the goal. I mean an offside that happened 30-45 seconds prior to the goal isn’t a game-changing/play-impacting moment.