No Rule Changes In NHL This Season

In a rare move, the NHL has announced that there won’t be any rule changes for the upcoming 2009-2010 hockey season.

Terry Gregson, who took over from Stephen Walkom as the NHL director of officiating, said the priorities this season will be for the referees to call the instigator penalty on fights more often and standardize the way they drop the puck for faceoffs. Officials were told by the league that the instigator penalty has been overlooked too often in the past.

“It’s not new,” Gregson said. “We’re not changing the wording and we’re not trying to make every fight an instigator call. “But if a player travels (to start a fight), you have to ask ‘did someone clearly instigate?’ And if so, apply the rule.”

The penalty for instigating was designed to discourage fighting in the game, which dropped after the 2004-05 lockout season, but has made a comeback in recent years.  There have been an unusually high number of fights this pre season, but few instigator penalties have been called. However, Gregson said the penalty should be called more often, especially in cases where a player retaliates for a clean hit on himself or a teammate.

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