Widening the Blue Line

[embryoniccrusadah]

I hate seeing barely offside plays get called back because of the challenge. I was trying to figure out ways to reduce the amount of close plays. What do you guys think about making the blue lines slightly thicker (anywhere from 10 to 50% wider) so that its easier to stay onside?

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[lakai17]

25%-40% wider would be decent actually yes.

 

[The Abusement Park]

I think it's frustrating because the rule was made to prevent players from cherry picking, which obviously makes sense. But when someone's offsides by half an inch, does that really give the attacking team an advantage? But I actually like that, I think that would be a good thing to implement.

 

[ColePens]

Would like to see both blue lines extended toward the neutral zone. An additional 50-70% would be good. Keep neutral zone/regroups the same and also could add a little more offensive zone space.

 

[ThatGuy22]

Wouldn't help at all. There would still be an end to the blue line. And as long as there is a distinct end, there are going to be close plays and players will try get as close as they can without going over.

 

[OvermanKingGainer]

All they really need to do is change the rule as follows:

If the puck is on the blue line, you can enter the offensive zone even if you lead it.

Makes sense to me. Since the puck can be above the blue line to KEEP the play onside.

 

[COHawk]

Wouldn't help at all. There would still be an end to the blue line. And as long as there is a distinct end, there are going to be close plays and players will try get as close as they can without going over.

This. I honestly think it is a pointless change. Blue line could be 8 feet wide and people would still get called offsides by 1 cm.

 

[Evergreen]

All they really need to do is change the rule as follows:

If the puck is on the blue line, you can enter the offensive zone even if you lead it.

Makes sense to me. Since the puck can be above the blue line to KEEP the play onside.

Then the question will be whether the player's skate it over the line when the puck crosses into the blue. You'd still have the same exact type of replays and such except it would be even harder for refs to get it right the first time because they would have to monitor two dividing lines at high speed - one for the puck and one for the player's skate.

 

[OvermanKingGainer]

Then the question will be whether the player's skate it over the line when the puck crosses into the blue.

The frequency of the question should drop though with greater margin for error.

 

[yukoner88]

they should bring back the rule that the blue line goes to the roof so we dont spend 15mins determining whether or not a player's foot is off the ice by a quarter of an inch

 

[DickSmehlik]

Considering the game is often a defensive chess match anyway, I am for any rule that minimizes the amount of off-sides called.

 

[Spazkat]

Wouldn't help at all. There would still be an end to the blue line. And as long as there is a distinct end, there are going to be close plays and players will try get as close as they can without going over.

This. Players are always going to push the envelope with things like this. The only other option is going with the "close enough" model, which sounds good until you realize that ref A thinks that includes an inch or so and ref B thinks its closer to a foot.

The most helpful change IMO would be treating requiring cameras in all rinks at both sides of the blue line and treating it as a plane to eliminate the "was the toe touching or not" nonsense.

 

[Mickey Marner]

Increasing the size of the blue line will not prevent players from going offside anymore than raising the speed limit by 10 would stop people from speeding. People will just adjust accordingly.

The o-zone is too big and the neutral zone too small, as it is.

 

[jw2]

Probably easier to just stay onside.

 

[OldMilIce]

While I think that it would help some, it would eventually just become the normal and offsides would be just as frequent. I don't think there is anything wrong with the way the game is called on the ice, sometimes a slight offside play gets through and it doesn't matter.

The real problem is on the challenges. A very slight offside can be caught by a video team and the coach can be alerted to challenge after a minute of play. I think the rule should just catch the obvious offside (a la Duchene) so a coach should have to see it in real time and have to signal his intention to challenge should a goal be scored in a set amount of time.

 

[BoredBrandonPridham]

What's the difference between making the blue line thicker versus moving it an inch or two closer to the goal?

Regardless of how you think about it, as others have said it will not work as players will still try and shave it as close as possible.

 

[Buck Aki Berg]

How about a tag-up rule where the player that's offside, assuming it's by a marginal amount, has to go back and re-enter the zone? If he doesn't within, say, 3 seconds, offside is called. If he involves himself in the play in any way before tagging up (or before the 3 seconds have elapsed), intentional offside is called.

At this point, the question becomes how to effectively communicate to a player that he must tag up. In theory, having the linesman yell "Number 16, tag!!" would suffice (we all know that linesmen can scream), but is that effective when the crowd is really raucous? What happens if the referee is too busy jumping out of the way of a player (or getting knocked around) to call out? Or would it just be the player's responsibility to know he's offside and react accordingly?

 

[Hynh]

Remove offsides, reintroduce two line pass.

 

[SUBdrewgANS]

I think as long as you are physically above the blueline you should be onside. who cares if your skate is off the ice, as long as it's above the line.

 

[Pukboy5kroner]

After watching goals called back, last year, I think changing the letter of the rule itself would be more helpful than altering the width of the line. By the former I simply mean altering the rule in a manner where offside isn't judged strictly by the position of a players skates on the ice.

 

[TheMule93]

I think it's frustrating because the rule was made to prevent players from cherry picking, which obviously makes sense. But when someone's offsides by half an inch, does that really give the attacking team an advantage? But I actually like that, I think that would be a good thing to implement.

I agree with this. Stopping play because someone was an inch ahead of the puck slows the game down and it isn't even within the spirit of the offsides rule

They need to define offsides better imo, or change the rule entirely. There needs to be a way to prevent guys from cherry picking without stopping play cause some guy happened to be an inch in front of the puck which would be impossible to see without slow motion (situations like that are ridiculous, especially when goals get called back because of it)

 

[Buck Aki Berg]

They need to define offsides better imo, or change the rule entirely. There needs to be a way to prevent guys from cherry picking without stopping play cause some guy happened to be an inch in front of the puck which would be impossible to see without slow motion (situations like that are ridiculous, especially when goals get called back because of it)

Is there really any reason to stop cherry picking other than "because"? Would cherrypicking suddenly be prevalent, with forwards taking themselves out of the play in hopes of receiving a low-percentage 165-foot pass?

Answer: of course not.

 

[Legionnaire11]

Wasn't the blueline already widened in 2005?

 

[missingchicklet]

Offensive zone is big enough already. I would simply make offsides a non-reviewable call. Messing up the flow of the game so that refs can huddle around a micro-screen for 5 minutes and try to see if a player was half an inch offside or not is ridiculous.

 

[Jumptheshark]

I hate seeing barely offside plays get called back because of the challenge. I was trying to figure out ways to reduce the amount of close plays. What do you guys think about making the blue lines slightly thicker (anywhere from 10 to 50% wider) so that its easier to stay onside?

why not get rid of the blue line and use the Football(soccer) Offside rules?