NHL announces rulebook crackdown for the 2021 - 2022 season.

There is no question that over the last several years the National Hockey League has been trending towards a less physical and much safer style of play on the ice, and in the latest announcement from the NHL we see yet another sign of this trend.

This week the league announced what I can only describe as a crackdown on cross-checking, one that once again appears to be designed to remove one of the more violent aspects of the sport that still remains quite prominent to this day. Even an average hockey fan that has followed the sport for any length of time can tell you that there are dozens, if not more, crosschecks in each and every game that go uncalled by NHL officiating crews. The NHL however appears determined to end that trend this season, although whether or not they will stick to that plan remains to be seen.

In a roughly 3 minute video published via their social media platforms, the league announced that there would be "stricter enforcement" of Rule 59 of the NHL rulebook for the 2021 - 2022 season. The reasoning given by the league in the video is that they hope the harsher enforcement will lead to a more exciting product on the ice. Specifically the league explains that the move is "designed to promote offense and reduce injuries", something that obviously makes sense on the surface.

The issue here of course is that the league has allowed cross-checking to run rampant for so long in the NHL that I could easily see this turning into a disaster during the first few months of the regular season. The officials calling a penalty every few minutes due to a cross-checking incident could get very old, very quickly, for the audience watching both in attendance and on television at home. Not to mention it is easy to see a world in which the NHL's television partners would not be happy about having the whistle blown constantly for cross-checking infractions. When you add the Stanley Cup Playoffs into the mix, a time of year where officials are known for keeping their whistles in their pockets, you get a number of scenarios in which this change could become problematic.

No doubt the league has good intentions here, but we will have to see how it plays out on the ice before making any kind of judgement on this change in enforcement to the rules.