<p><p>The tempers died down, and the outrage over hockey law seemingly misapplied faded after a good night’s sleep. Similar goaltender interference challenges had opposite outcomes for Seattle and Calgary on Sunday night during a 3-2 Kraken loss, to the boos of the Climate Pledge Arena crowd.</p></p><p><p>Almost a decade into the coaches’ challenge era of the NHL, the sense in Seattle is — it’s not perfect. Someone is often still upset. But an extra look to try and get it right is worth the time and disruption.</p></p><p><p>“In general, the challenges and how we go about it and what it brings to the game is a good thing,” Kraken coach Dan Bylsma said.</p></p><p><p>“The league’s done a good job of getting to a good spot. I get to disagree with the calls that go against us, but in general, they’ve done a good job.”</p></p><p><p>There were multiple references to an unspecified, clearly offside goal against in Bylsma’s past, one he was powerless to overturn. That incident clearly lingers.</p></p><p><p>Just a guess — in the 2012 playoffs, Danny Briere was clearly offsides as his Philadelphia Flyers overcame a three-goal deficit in Game 1 to stun the Pittsburgh Penguins, coached by Bylsma. The Flyers went on to win that series in six games. NHL senior executive VP of hockey operations Colin Campbell later called it “a mistake.”</p></p><p><p>All Bylsma could do at the time was “lament.” A few years later, that changed.</p></p><p><p>“You’ve got to take the good and the bad,” Bylsma said. “But I think the challenge is a good thing for the game.”</p></p><p><p>The list of relevant grievances continues to grow. Prior to this season, the coach’s challenge rule was applicable on plays involving goals scored off a potential offside, goalie interference or missed stoppage.</p></p><p><p>But starting in 2024-25, the NHL waded into the business of challenging penalties, seen by some as a slippery slope. At the annual meetings of the NHL general managers in March, the GMs voted to propose certain penalties were subject to coach’s challenges, including delay-of-game penalties for pucks shot over the glass. If the video review clearly shows the puck was deflected by the other team or hit the glass on its way out, it could be overturned.</p></p><p><p>These were relatively rare events. A review by the NHL department of hockey operations last March determined there were 12 total incorrect delay-of-game penalties out of 278 and 254 calls, respectively, the previous two seasons.</p></p><p><p>A similar, proposed change for high-sticking penalties was not approved.</p></p><p><p>There’s risk involved. An unsuccessful challenge would result in an additional penalty, a concept that has to be fresh on Bylsma’s mind. A failed attempt against the Flames resulted in a full, two-minute five-on-three on Sunday and Calgary opened up a three-goal lead.</p></p><p><p>The coach’s challenge was introduced in the 2015-16 season. At first the punishment for an unsuccessful challenge was the loss of a timeout. Those often go unused anyway and it wasn’t enough of a deterrent. Goalie interference penalty challenges were almost twice as common before 2019, when a stiffer penalty for insufficient evidence was instituted — a minor penalty.</p></p><p><p>There was another change in late 2018, as goalie interference challenges were taken out of in-ice officials’ hands. Challenged plays went to the NHL’s Situation Room in Toronto for a final ruling.</p></p><p><p>According to Scouting the Refs, challenges were up 13% last season from 2022-23, and teams were getting better at deciding when to go for it. The success rate rose 1% to 69%. Seventy-four calls were upheld and 161 were overturned.</p></p><p><p>The fairly black-and-white offside challenge was the most common (126) and the most often successful, at 86%. Stoppage challenges were the least common (22) and the least likely to overturn a goal at 25% frequency.</p></p><p><p>Goalie interference, the offense most up for interpretation, was almost 50-50. In 87 cases, 40 were upheld and 47 were overturned.</p></p><p><p>“If you’ve ever had a chance to be in a room of 50 hockey people, and you put them up on the screen, you’re going to find that they’re generally 50-50, or 40-60, on whether we can get a consensus,” Bylsma said. “There’s a lot of gray.</p></p><p><p>“There’s lot of factors that go into it. Blue paint, not in the blue paint. Incidental, or was he pushed in? … It’s a 50-50 proposition at best.”</p></p><p><p>Challenges drag down the game’s run time, usually only by a few minutes, but it’s something league GMs are cognizant of. It’s thrown video analysts into the spotlight as they’re watching for contestable goals.</p></p><p><p>The Kraken, albeit under a different coaching staff, were tied for fourth-most goals lost via challenge last season with eight. Pittsburgh had the most with 10. For the second straight year, Dallas was the only team to be awarded a goal after it was disallowed, on a coach’s challenge.</p></p><p><p>According to More Hockey Stats, Bylsma is 1-1 on goaltender interference challenges this season and 3-1 on offside challenges. The most memorable was Nov. 5, when the Kraken challenged a goal from Colorado’s Artturi Lehkonen.</p></p><p><p>It was disallowed, then reinstated, when eagle-eyed Avalanche employees went back further in the play and realized Seattle had actually sent that puck down the ice. The Kraken bench still got a delay-of-game penalty.</p></p><p><p>The goalie interference judgments are often even stranger. Would the league be better if there were fewer gray areas?</p></p><p><p>“One of the great things about our game is you get to have this discussion about whether you can make it better or not make it better, and what it would [look like],” Bylsma said. “There are examples of different ways to do it, and they come with their own challenges.”</p></p><p><p>Winger Jaden Schwartz, the would-be Seattle scorer against Calgary, wasn’t pleased after the game. He said it was a bad call on his overturned goal, and mentioned “both of the refs told me that it was probably a goal,” though Toronto made the final call.</p></p><p><p>Again, the emotions were still fresh. Usually Schwartz said he’s indifferent.</p></p><p><p>“It kind of goes in waves. Sometimes it helps you, sometimes it doesn’t,” he said the day before. “But that’s just kind of out of my control.”</p></p>
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