from Dan Rosen of NHL.com,
The rule changes implemented this season aimed at influencing offense, ensuring calls are being made correctly and reducing the time it takes to play games are having the desired effect, NHL executives demonstrated to the general managers Monday.
"They're all very subtle changes but we feel they've helped the game," NHL senior executive vice president of hockey operations Colin Campbell said.
The punitive change to the coach's challenge rule has had the most obvious effect. The NHL made a failed challenge in any of the three categories (offside, goalie interference or missed stoppage in play, which is a new category this season) result in a two-minute penalty for delay of game.
It's clear that the fear of a penalty has caused a dramatic decrease in the number of challenges this season because there have been 133 coach's challenges through the 1,015 games played entering Monday, down from 222 last season, a 41-percent decrease.
The percentage of successful challenges has increased to 57 percent (77 of 133), up from 38 percent last season (38 percent).
"You can see that the overturned stats are still there in terms of offside and goaltender interference plays, but the number of total challenges is down significantly," NHL senior vice president and director of officiating supervision Stephen Walkom said. "We're looking at one challenge for every eight games."
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