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So the new rules are being fine tuned and discussed, and one specifically has entered the rulebooks as a direct response of the last year:
#NHL BOG approves rule change adding minor penalty for unsuccessful coach's challenge on offside. No longer costs timeout; no timeout needed
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) September 27, 2017
I’m all for this. The offsides challenges were the single most obnoxious things that slowed games down last year by a wide margin as refs, fans, and players sat around waiting for confirmation that a player was indeed offsides or not. Deincentivizing these challenges unless they’re truly egregious is the best possible solution to this.
Of course...there’s now a new wrinkle to it. You aren’t charged a timeout, and uh...
So two people just confirmed to me: you can issue as many challenges as you'd like per game.
— Travis Yost (@travisyost) September 27, 2017
THAT might make it a little easier for coaches to say “Sure, I’ll try it out. What’s the worst that could happen?”, one could see a game where a coach being ornery and challenging nearly every play.
What do you think of the new rule change? Good? Bad?