Intent to blow the whistle

Perhaps the most illogical rule change in recent years for the NHL is to disallow goals if they were scored after the intent to blow the whistle. It used to be that players could score goals as long as the puck crossed the line before the whistle actually sounded.

The NHL’s primary reason for changing the rules after the lockout was to improve how the game looks on paper. In other words, they were trying to pad goal totals. No goals can be scored with this change that couldn’t before, but some goals that could be scored before are no longer allowed. This rule change contradicts the purpose of the changes.

Another problem is that this creates an inconsistency between the time played and the time available for scoring. You can’t set the clock to when the ref decided that he was going to blow the whistle because the person responsible for the clock can’t read the ref’s mind. Also, the clock does not stop at the intent to blow the whistle. It stops at roughly the time that the whistle is heard. During the time between the intent to blow the whistle and the actual blown whistle, players are working hard to accomplish something that will not be allowed.

In addition to the highly illogical components of the rule change, we also have to deal with uncertainty. You can review a goal to see if it crosses the line before the whistle is blown. You can’t review for the intent to blow the whistle. The refs have less margin of error to see whether or not the puck crosses before they decide to blow the play dead.

Not only that, but you have to trust that all officials intend to make the right calls. All it takes is one corrupt official to taint an entire sport. The current rules would make it easy for a ref to simply refuse a goal that he doesn’t want to count. I’m not saying that this has happened, but it probably will in the future.

With most rules, you at least have a sense of what the league was trying to do. With this rule, I honestly have no idea what the league was thinking. I guess that means that I technically can’t get away with saying that the league failed to accomplish what it was trying with this rule. If anyone out there who reads this somehow knows why this rule exists, can you please explain it to me?