The National Hockey League’s general managers have been discussing their game lately, making decisions on what changes are working, what needs improving, and what just plain needs to go. Not much is expected to change though, despite growing feelings to eliminate some of the more useless changes to the game, as the majority believe that the entire package of changes have equally contributed to the increased offense that the NHL has been striving to achieve for the last few years. Many of the newly introduced rules have involved eliminating play stoppages unless those were accompanied by a penalty of some kind.

As part of the many changes that ushered in the “new era” NHL, the league created the goalie trapezoid behind the net. The basic idea is that a goalie may handle the puck anywhere in front of the goal line and within the trapezoid behind it, but if he so much as touches the puck in either of those two little sections of ice in the corners, he will be charged with a delay of game penalty. The idea is that there is the unwritten code that goalies are not to be hit, and if a goalie is playing the puck in the corner, the other team can’t do anything about it. This is often referred to as the Martin Brodeur Rule.

The NHL has been trying to increase the offense of hockey for the last several years, and have been widely successful so far. The introduction of the trapezoid behind the nets has been a part of that increase. There has been some backlash from players and fans regarding this rule because it unnecessarily takes away the goaltender from the play. Those who want the trapezoid rule eliminated argue that despite statistics, there is a serious chance of injury by forcing defensemen to play the puck in the corners. They argue that while there have not been many major injuries in such scenarios, one is always too many.

In a league that is so quick to make changes in an attempt to increase scoring, it’s surprising to see that the goalie trapezoid is seemingly here to stay. With the creation of this rule and the elimination of the “any body part in the crease equals no goal” rule from a few years ago, it certainly seems somebody is really trying to make life difficult for net-minders. But the old adage is that you have to be a little crazy to be a goaltender anyway; perhaps the NHL is simply trying to rephrase it to be “a lot crazy.”