Much like the NFL’s headaches when it comes to what is or isn’t a catch, a simple stroll around Hockey Twitter will often unearth loud groans about goalie interference reviews. At least when people aren’t grumbling about offside goal reviews, that is.
From the viewpoints of reporters on hand for the latest round of GM meetings, it sounds like the league is at least attempting to sort out the latest mess.
Granted, you could sense some of the fatigue on this issue from what Lightning GM Steve Yzerman had to say about it, via NHL.com’s Dan Rosen:
“You can clarify the standards, but each referee and everyone, you and I, has a different opinion,” Yzerman said. “Within that room everyone has a little different opinion on did it impact the goaltender. It’s subjective. No one is ever going to agree 100 percent.”
Fair enough, but much of the frustration stems from the sheer confusion at hand, as there doesn’t seem to be a clear standard. It’s one thing to disagree with how an infraction is called, but at the moment, many feel like there’s far too much variation in calls.
With that in mind, some GMs apparently hope to tweak the process by, ideally, limiting the number of people who are making the snap decisions on goalie interference:
It sounds like they’re going to start centralizing the decisions on goaltender interference reviews out of the NHL’s video reviews. An attempt for more consistency.
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) March 19, 2018
By “centralizing,” it could mean leaving that decision to “The Situation Room,” as Rosen explains:
GMs and NHL have discussed a lot of options to potentially improve the review process for goalie interference to create more consistency, including putting an official in The Situation Room to having The Situation Room make the final call. (2)
— Dan Rosen (@drosennhl) March 19, 2018
The meetings reportedly included test cases for goalie interference, with Rosen noting that GMs and media alike had trouble reaching a consensus on certain examples. That helps to illuminate the challenge at hand, but again, many people would probably be at least a bit happier if it was easier to anticipate what would and would not be called as interference.
Quite a few numbers were thrown around about coaches challenges. ESPN’s Emily Kaplan shared a slide from the NHL that would argue that offside challenges have dropped off, likely because a failed challenge results in a delay of game penalty, but goalie interference remains a drag on the game.
It’s a vaguely depressing yet informative chart:
Per the NHL pic.twitter.com/JKlQhaXMMv
— Emily Kaplan (@emilymkaplan) March 19, 2018
Ultimately, it seems like the league still has quite a bit to sort through, with totally fun subplots including the notion that goalies are being coached to embellish interference. Again, lots of fun.
For fans of the sport, it’s about walking the line between getting it right and not grinding too many games to a screeching halt. One might ponder carrying over the delay of game penalty to challenging goalie interference alongside offside reviews, but that might not fly:
One idea brought up today in GM mtgs was a 2-minute penalty for incorrect goaltender interference challenge. Colin Campbell didn't seem wild about it, since it's subjective and not black and white like offside. But penalty for offside has resulted in ~50 fewer challenges y/o/y.
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) March 19, 2018
Maybe Habs GM Marc Bergevin is correct in saying that just a small number of calls go wrong. Still, these challenges are slowing down games about two minutes at a time. That might not sound like much, though when it happens in the flow of an exciting back-and-forth contest, it can be a real killer.
Let’s hope they improve the process, even if it ends up being a work in progress.
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James O’Brien is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @cyclelikesedins.