Time to get rid of offsides review

[SEALBound]

You saying that doesn't make it true. You don't seem to understand how photographic angles work, frame rates or any of the technological limitations that still make it a judgment call in many situations. The NHL still can't get offside review correct 100% of the time WITH review because there's still judgment involved.

And I hate to break it to you, but the rules are already arbitrarily enforced.

My team wasn't involved in any offside play recently but if you need to dismiss people refuting your weak argument with excuses like that, knock yourself out.

Which ones? Please say "tripping, slashing, hooking, GI" is illustrate how little you continue to understand.

 

[wintersej]

I'd rather have that happen once in a blue moon that this micro analysis. Calls get missed. How many goals happen every year because of some hook, hold, slash, interference, etc that doesn't get called. Leave the human element in the game.

If you want to double check a 5 minute major, cool. Heck, I'm down for reviewing goaltender interference. But worrying about things being inches offsides completely misses the original intention and need for even having an offsides rule.

 

[AKL]

I'd rather have that happen once in a blue moon that this micro analysis. Calls get missed. How many goals happen every year because of some hook, hold, slash, interference, etc that doesn't get called. Leave the human element in the game.

If you want to double check a 5 minute major, cool. Heck, I'm down for reviewing goaltender interference. But worrying about things being inches offsides completely misses the original intention and need for even having an offsides rule.

Must have been a bigger issue than "once in a blue moon" or else they wouldn't have introduced the offsides challenge in the first place. I think some fans are the only ones who have a problem with it.

 

[MattMartin]

The best possibly way to keep the rule and make it still work (also should be used in the NFL) is by a time limit. If you can't find it within 30 seconds, goal counts. Everyone wins because, if it's not that obvious, it should stand.

 

[wintersej]

I can't believe the amount of people that are okay with not getting it right. I guess until it affects your team in a big way it's okay to see it that way. My problem with offside review is that you need to have gone to university for 8 years to understand what offside even is. How is the casual fan supposed to understand all this possession crap. Take all that nonsense out and make it black or white. You got 30 seconds to review it and if it isn't obvious enough to figure out, then what ever the ref determined live, stands.

What is "getting it right"? There are a million missed calls every game. Some of them lead to goals. Do we need a review for the little jersey tug that prevented a defender to get to his spot on time that the refs missed? That has more impact on goals than this non-sense.

 

[Beerz]

I'd like the rule changed or removed.. its dumb.


Having said that..on this particular play it was the right call in the sense that Buffalo got away with a blatant trip that turned puck over and set up GWG.

 

[dire wolf]

I can't believe the amount of people that are okay with not getting it right. I guess until it affects your team in a big way it's okay to see it that way. My problem with offside review is that you need to have gone to university for 8 years to understand what offside even is. How is the casual fan supposed to understand all this possession crap. Take all that nonsense out and make it black or white. You got 30 seconds to review it and if it isn't obvious enough to figure out, then what ever the ref determined live, stands.

All of us have been on both sides of this issue -- and trust me, I would have loved video goal review in the '99 SCF. This obsession with getting it "right" is just weird to me.

First, I don't know when you started watching hockey, but the game was great for almost 100 years before offside review. Nobody cared if the linesmen occasionally missed a close call. It's like icing --unless the ref blows the whistle, the players knew to keep playing, and these micro transgressions that can only be seen on slo mo video had nothing to do with the purpose of the offside rule or the flow of the game. Literally, nobody cared.

Second, the idea that we have to get everything "right" in hockey is a joke. Almost all the important ref decisions are judgment calls, and the number of missed penalties in games is 1000x more significant than somebody's skate being an inch over the blue line.

Third, the review process and calling back goals is terrible for fans. It takes the joy out of goals.

By the way, I was listening to Tuch's post-game interview this morning, and he said that lots of players had already taken off their jerseys and pads before they found out that the goal was waved off. In fact, he thinks that some of the Oilers had already taken off their skates. The players hadn't even finished returning to the bench when they re-started overtime. Some of the fans were already out of the arena. Just get rid of the review. Who cares if the linesmen miss a few offside calls. It has literally no effect on the game as long as guys aren't cherry picking. At best, save review for the playoffs.

 

[Avsfan1921]

In a league where so many calls and non calls are missed, who cares about a rule that’s right 99% of the time. This is the most consistent rule in the nhl, for every team, yet when there’s a close one or some time lapses people are up in arms lol. Let’s worry about the actual on-ice officiating, that’s where people should deservedly have their pitchforks pointed.

“Slows the game down” should not be a deciding factor on making the right call. If you are offside you are offside, just like in other sports.

 

[Avsfan1921]

All of us have been on both sides of this issue -- and trust me, I would have loved video goal review in the '99 SCF. This obsession with getting it "right" is just weird to me.

First, I don't know when you started watching hockey, but the game was great for almost 100 years before offside review. Nobody cared if the linesmen occasionally missed a close call. It's like icing --unless the ref blows the whistle, the players knew to keep playing, and these micro transgressions that can only be seen on slo mo video had nothing to do with the purpose of the offside rule or the flow of the game. Literally, nobody cared.

Second, the idea that we have to get everything "right" in hockey is a joke. Almost all the important ref decisions are judgment calls, and the number of missed penalties in games is 1000x more significant than somebody's skate being an inch over the blue line.

Third, the review process and calling back goals is terrible for fans. It takes the joy out of goals.

By the way, I was listening to Tuch's post-game interview this morning, and he said that lots of players had already taken off their jerseys and pads before they found out that the goal was waved off. In fact, he thinks that some of the Oilers had already taken off their skates. The players hadn't even finished returning to the bench when they re-started overtime. Some of the fans were already out of the arena. Just get rid of the review. Who cares if the linesmen miss a few offside calls. It has literally no effect on the game as long as guys aren't cherry picking. At best, save review for the playoffs.

Maybe the players should wait to gear down after they get the official word that the game is over. And it really doesn’t matter if they have to tie their skates back up, the game is not done.

As well, there is no world where the rules should differ from regular season to playoffs outside of overtime (3 on 3, shootouts).

 

[Tom Polakis]

All of us have been on both sides of this issue -- and trust me, I would have loved video goal review in the '99 SCF. This obsession with getting it "right" is just weird to me.

First, I don't know when you started watching hockey, but the game was great for almost 100 years before offside review. Nobody cared if the linesmen occasionally missed a close call...

It's not quite 100 years ago, but some Flyers fans wouldn't have minded an offside review in the first period of Game 6 of the 1980 Stanley Cup Final. And it was a lot more than "an inch or so" out of the zone, that comes up so often in these threads.

People are over the top with their reactions that they're losing interest in the NHL due to these challenges, which are actually quite rare.

I'd agree to the compromise suggested in this thread that something like a 30-second time limit should be imposed to make the call less anti-climactic. But get rid of the review altogether, and watch this board blow up with threads about incompetent linesmen causing their team to lose.

 

[dire wolf]

Another thing to consider -- even Toronto screws up on the reviews sometimes. In 2021, the Sabres scored what appeared to be the game-tying goal against the Rangers with less than a minute left. Toronto reviewed the goal and called it offside and waved off the goal. Buffalo lost. The league later admitted that they made a mistake and the play was not offside.
NHL Admits Error in Sabres’ Goal Overturned for Offside

 

[tarheelhockey]

If in OT, the puck goes over the line 90% of the way but there's still clearly some puck on the goal line - does it count? If the call if a goal, would you want it reviewed? And if the ref says "well it was most of the way there" and said no review, how would you feel?

You say this like it’s some unheard-of dilemma.

Not only did people experience this scenario for generations of NHL hockey, but 99.9% of us play hockey under those conditions.

How do we feel? Heated for a few minutes, then we move on with our lives… because replay isn’t a potential outcome, so we live with the calls as they’re made.

Can you name even one memorable goal-line controversy prior to the replay era? No, because those calls were forgotten by the time people woke up the next morning. Nothing about the game was worse for the lack of replay.

The human element exists and it’s fine. The attempt to get rid of the human element is what is creating the controversy.

We bitch and moan about the rulebook being called yet every once and awhile people get sour grapes because their team didn't get the benefit of cheating. That's all this ever amounts to. There are no second or third directions to these discussions.

That’s a really bad take. A missed call is not “cheating” and people have very defensible views on this topic which have nothing to do with team bias.

 

[andora]

Just take it away from the officials on the ice

 

[BobCole]

Yep. This is the NHL's worst rules enforcement fiasco since the skate in the crease rule was recalled. If only the league weren't presided over by a boys club chock full of idiots and one smarmy labor lawyer.

 

[behemolari]

This was horrible

 

[Uncle Scrooge]

Honestly, I like the way it's been after they got rid of the dumb "skate has to touch the ice" rule.

This is a bit of an outlier. Luckily these super close calls that even in a video review are 50/50 happen very rarely. I can live with that if they get the rest right 100% of the time.

 

[Ford Prefect]

I think there's one way to make the review palatable: you can only look as far back as to when the defending team gains possession. If the defense plays the puck at all between the offside and the goal, let it count. They had a chance to clear at that point.

 

[Sheppy]

30-45 second review at real time. No need in zooming into a 75% pixelated screen to review a play at 100 frames per second.

I'm also ok with them using the entire blue line as onside. If you're in the zone and the puck is still on the blue line, let it go.

 

[starsfan86]

Make it a coach challenge throughout the whole game but they only have 20 seconds to review and challenge. Some of these delays take like 2 plus minutes before the challenge has been initiated.

 

[El Travo]

I 100% guarantee that people will complain about missed offside plays if they got rid of the review. They either need to rework the offside rule, or rework how the review works.

I say take it out of the coaches hands to instigate a review. Have the league make the call. If they notice the offside and have proof before play resumes, then it's obvious enough of a missed call to warrant it being called back.

 

[Megustaelhockey]

I 100% guarantee that people will complain about missed offside plays if they got rid of the review. They either need to rework the offside rule, or rework how the review works.

I say take it out of the coaches hands to instigate a review. Have the league make the call. If they notice the offside and have proof before play resumes, then it's obvious enough of a missed call to warrant it being called back.

Or just use technology that exists today to automate the call.

 

[Johnny Rifle]

Here is an easy solution.

Require that a coach or someone upstairs press a buzzer immediately upon a bad zone entry that the linesmen or referees can feel or hear (vibration or an earpiece). If the buzzer is tripped and a goal is scored, then we go to replay and either the goal counts and a two minute penalty is assessed on the opposing team or the goal is disallowed.

The key is that the buzzer must be pressed immediately after the zone entry or the buzzer is disregarded.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

The offsides review has long been an embarrassment, but today, the embarrassment may have peaked. The Sabres apparently beat the Oilers with 2 seconds left in overtime. Everyone had celebrated and moved into the locker room. TV had gone to commercial. Fans were making their way to the exits. Suddenly, out of the blue, Toronto buzzes in and says NO GOAL because twenty seconds earlier, there was an apparent, maybe, sort of offsides. This was that offsides.

View attachment 833209

The Sabres went on to win in a shootout, but the embarrassment for the league remains. It’s time to put these ridiculous replays to bed. It’s a bad look for everyone.

No it's not get it right.

Let me ask you this, what if the Sabres are really good one day and they make it to game 7 of the cup finals against Vegas and are up 1 with a minute to go, with about 30 seconds to go Vegas crosses the blueline to tie the game, the replay shows Vegas is offside but we got rid of Offside review so the goal counts.

Jack Eichel scores in OT and Vegas wins the championship.

A championship that should have gone to Buffalo and would have gone to Buffalo if we could have reviewed the tying goal, but because we got rid of offside review Buffalo is screwed out of a Stanley cup championship and Vegas wins a a championship that everybody knows they don't deserve because everybody knows the tying goal was offside.

You still singing the same tune? I HIGHLY doubt it.

Get the call right.

 

[80shockeywasbuns]

I had always been under the impression you had to challenge for offside but I guess not.
Is that somewhere in the rule book for Toronto to review every goal? Just in the last 5 minutes?

I totally agree OP this offside fetish the NHL has has gone on long enough. The BoG need to scrap it. Getting out the Zapruder film to try to spot 3mm of white or blue ice every game is f***ing ridiculous. That's not what the rule was created for and it rarely has any tangible effect whatsoever on the play. These are the best linesmen in the world, leave it up to them. We accept a degree of human error in so many of the other calls what makes this one so critical to get right.

Totally agree. I don’t get why offside needs to be called black and white. We let the refs eyeball so many calls, for example whether the skater gains the red line before icing. Idk why offside can’t just be the same thing. I don’t care whether a player was a foot offside or not, it has minimal effect on the play and im tired of seeing great plays come off the board from this irrelevant bullshit. One day a Stanley Cup winning goal will be scored and everyone will have to pick up their helmets and gloves because one guys pube hair entered the zone early

 

[22Brad Park]

I can live with off side replay but would like to see a tweak to it.If a team brings it in offside and defending team touches puck or controls it and fails to clear it out then lose it and it ends up in net ,then no replay should be allowed.I have saw teams keep pucks in a minute + and have it called back.That slows game down bigtime u ask me.