A brief history of skate-in-crease reviews, an awful rule some of you seem to want to go back to

The NHL’s GMs are meeting this week, and one of the items expected to be discussed is the replay review system. It’s mostly working fine, the league’s powerbrokers seem to agree. But reviews are taking too long, and maybe we should learn from the NFL’s recent changes that allow replay officials to nudge referees over missed calls. And, of course, people are mad about goaltender interference reviews. As always.

This latest flare-up in the debate was prompted by a close call in a recent game between the Jets and Lightning. That one initially went against Winnipeg and was upheld after a coach’s challenge, much to the frustration of Jets’ goaltender Connor Hellebuyck. You wouldn’t think that “guy whose whole job is preventing goals thinks goal he allowed shouldn’t have counted” would be major news, but here we are.

It’s all led to another round of the usual “nobody knows how interference works” hysteria, the sort of performative confusion that certain fans, media and even coaches love to put on whenever a call goes against their team (but weirdly, never when it goes the other way). It’s also led to the latest appearance of what seems like a reasonable question: Why is this all so subjective? Why can’t we just have a black-and-white rule that works the same way every time, and that we don’t have to argue about?

It’s a fair question. And apparently, some of you are either too young or too new to the sport to know that there's an answer. So on behalf of us old-timers, here's the short version: We tried that, it was a disaster, and everyone hated it.

We also vowed never to do it again, but lately it feels like that might not last. If the “just get it right” crowd forms a coalition with the “just keep it simple” brigade, maybe we’re headed back to the cut-and-dried interference calls of the past. It’s might even be inevitable; if we really can’t stomach any ambiguity on these calls, then we don't really have any other options.

But if so, we should at least know what we’re getting into. And if you’re the sort of fan who’s found themselves wondering why we can’t just do this the easy way, you should know the history of how we got here.

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