NHL GMs agree with Competition Committee recommendations

The NHL’s general managers held their annual meeting on Wednesday night during Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals. They came to the conclusion that full support is given to the Competition Committee’s recommendations given earlier this week. These recommendations include changes to the rules for overtime, faceoffs after icings, the configuration of the faceoff circles, increasing the size of the trapezoid behind the net and more strict measures for embellishment offenses.

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The biggest topic under discussion is the embellishment offenses. NHL’s vice president of hockey operations, Colin Campbell emphasized that this really needs to be fixed. He wants the wording of the rule to be changed to allow warnings and that fines will be imposed for those players and coaches who are constantly breaking the rule.

"“It’s not about taking a player out of the game; it’s about making everybody aware that this player does embellish,” Campbell said. “More than that it’s about the players who don’t embellish that ask the question, ‘Should I start embellishing now because I’m on an uneven playing field here, they’re getting calls because they embellish?’ “"

The second biggest topics were in regards to coaching challenges and using video replay during goalie interference. Phoenix Coyotes general manager Don Maloney believes this won’t be happening just yet.

"“It is something that continues to be discussed and as technology expands and as you get more HD cameras in buildings, there’s perhaps a time in the future that I can see video replay expanding to goaltender interference,” Maloney said. “But right now to me it’s too gray, too ambiguous.”"

All of the recommendations will need to be reviewed and approved by the NHL Board of Governors and the NHL Players Association Executive Board prior to becoming official, but the general managers backing the changes is a great sign that it will indeed happen.