"Be careful what you wish for"

Over the last 48 hours, we've repeatedly heard the phrase, "this is not why the NHL brought in the coach's challenge for offsides", and "reviews like this suck the life out of a game", when referring to the offside call in Friday's Game 2 of the Hawks-Blues series.

While that may be true, is it really enough to cause us to revisit the rule change?

First of all, we are unanimous in two areas: first, they got the call right and second, it took way too long to come to that conclusion.

Given what's happened in the past (see Avalanche vs. Predators on Feb. 18, 2013), the league was called to take steps to avoid this sort of embarrassment in the future and they have accomplished that. To make certain there is no debate, for the first time in history, they have introduced cameras at the blue line for the sole purpose of ensuring they can make the right call, even when it is "by a toe".

Ok, you say but, "this is not why the NHL brought in the coach's challenge for offsides". Oh really? So the rule has been introduced for "egregious" offsides only and not when someone is just "a little" offside? So, ignoring the obvious 'just a little pregnant' analogy, where should we now draw the line? Toe off the ice by six inches or more when the puck crosses the line? In the zone more than two seconds before the puck is okay and any earlier than that is illegal?  If the goal was to "get it right", well they have accomplished that.

The real issue seems to be, "reviews like this suck the life out of the game". Okay, then let's fix that. As things stand now, we wait for the stoppage, we wait for coaches to review their own video before challenging, we wait for the league to find the video, we wait for them to send it to on-ice officials, and only then do we await a decision. "Life of the game" officially sucked out.

Why not allow hockey operations to look at the video while the play continues or soon thereafter and put the decision in their hands. By the time all the in-house drama plays out, we will be significantly closer to a decision.

There was a large hue and cry to get the offside calls right. The NHL has done that.

We can not be seriously considering returning to the days of allowing an "egregious" missed offside to decide a game. We also can not be seriously considering asking the NHL to turn a blind eye to plays that were only a "little offside."

This is not Brett Hull toe in the crease.

This was not an ill-conceived rule change.

The rule works.

It's the process that needs fixing.

Gino Reda hosts Tim Hortons That's Hockey weeknights on TSN