How was it abused? The old rule required the requesting team to have a time out, which they would lose along with the right to challenge any future ruling in the game.
The purpose of replay is to get questionable calls right, not make it so punitive that teams will avoid using it. That's typical NHL policy, to take a useful technology or idea and implement it in a way that makes everyone long for the good ol' forward-thinking days of 1633, when a person could be imprisoned for life for daring to suggest that the Earth revolved around the Sun. Okay: /drama.
Point is that rather than accept a poor implementation, smarter minds could come up with a more reasonable way to do it that doesn't include strict punishment. They could do this by limiting the number of challenges or putting more effort into a league-sponsored review system which has a goal of efficiency. The game length argument is weak sauce. Get the ruling right (which they did last night, for what it's worth).
