Dave Lozo's Bag Skate: Expanding Video Review Could Solve a Lot of NHL Problems

There are some very powerful older men in Boca Raton, Florida, this week. No, these aren't the ones who live next door to your retired parents and decide when the Elks Lodge will hold its pancake breakfast and mixer with the Retired Ladies of Boca Canasta Club. These men won't install a puppet regime at the condo board elections.

These are the NHL's general managers, and they are deciding on potential changes that could affect the games you watch next season, although they could be planning a pancake breakfast too. You never know. Pancakes are great.

The biggest items on the GMs' agenda are tweaking overtime to introduce three-on-three and expanding video review to allow for goals scored as a result of goaltender interference to get a second look. Diving also seems to be a big deal for some reason, although that's like caring deeply about some chin acne when you're about to have heart surgery.

From the sound of things Tuesday, three-on-three is on the horizon, as is coaches' challenges for goaltender interference.

If expanding video review is on the table, why is goaltender interference as far as the expansion is taking them? There are so many other issues that could be solved by looking at video.

The NHL is putting computer chips in pucks and tracking player movement like never before, so why not let video review help fix the mistakes by missed calls by the league's perennially overmatched officials?

Any proposals must go through the competition committee and board of governors to be approved. In the meantime, here are the things the NHL should change, especially as it pertains to video review.

Changes 

1. Please, dear hockey gods, no three-on-three 

Red Wings GM Ken Holland wants this more than little girls want a Frozen backpack. I want this less than I want a Frozen backpack. 

The logic is sound. It truly is. Holland said, via NHL.com's Dan Rosen:

"

We understand in Detroit the shootout is here to stay… so how do we have a greater percentage of games decided in overtime and a lesser percentage decided in a shootout? The shootout fans will get their shootouts, but from my perspective I'd like to see more games decided in overtime than in the shootout. That's all I'm trying to bring to the table.

"

The shootout stinks. We all know this. The thing is, three-on-three, while it stinks less than the shootout, still stinks. This is like having a pet skunk that constantly vomits and to solve the issue of the bad smell, you pay for the skunk to have surgery to correct the vomiting but keep the skunk.

Three-on-three is more gimmicky than a shootout. Three-on-three happens so infrequently that NHL.com doesn't track it here or here. There have been two three-on-three goals and 92 penalty-shot goals since 2010-11. You tell me which is the more unnatural way of awarding a second point.

2. Let's give coaches one challenge per game 

If you win your challenge, you keep it. You lose your challenge, you lose your timeout too. If you want to challenge something, you do so at the next whistle. Will this slow the game? Sure, a little, but who cares? The league can get a sponsor for challenges. "And with that we will now take a look at a replay during the ExtenZe Replay Challenge."

It sounds like this will be the case for goaltender interference calls, but why stop there? Why not challenge other things officials routinely miss during the season?

3. Coaches can challenge missed high sticks

Is there anything more infuriating than seeing a player on your favorite team eat a high stick, only to have all four officials miss it? No, really, I'm asking. I haven't cared about a team winning or losing a hockey game in years, so I have no idea.

But I imagine it's upsetting to fans, coaches and players. It's also easy correctable. If the broadcast has video of Barret Jackman putting his stick into the face of Gabriel Landeskog. Why can't Patrick Roy challenge himself into a power play? At the next whistle, Roy would challenge and the off-ice official would say, "Yes, Landeskog is spitting blood on the ice because Jackman's stick hit him in the mouth."

It would take 11 seconds to fix. Rewind the clock back to the time of the penalty, continue the game.

If your flimsy counter-argument to this is, "What about hooking, holding and other penalties that are missed?" Those are subjective. A stick hitting you in the face is not. If that happens and it's not part of a follow through, it should be a penalty every time.

4. Coaches can challenge missed too many men

This one is less concrete, as the rule states a player can be within five feet of the bench when a change is occurring. There would need to be definitive evidence of there being six skaters in play, none of which are within five feet of the bench. It still would be helpful in situations where six players are clearly involved in the play and no one sees it.

It happens in somewhat big situations sometimes.

Too many men on the field has been part of the NFL's video review scope since it began in 1986. 1986! The NHL would be wise to move themselves into the 20th century (1986!) in this regard.

Maybe the NHL can paint a five-foot ring around each bench so the too many men penalty can be more definitive. Heck, they can make the rings yellow and call them the McDonald's On-Ice Arches. I am solving problems and making the NHL millions of dollars with each tap of my keyboard. 

5. Coaches can challenge missed offside calls

This one is even less concrete. It's extremely difficult, even with cameras all over the place, to review whether a player was offside immediately before a goal. But other times, it's quite easy.

Like here:

And here: 

They all won't be as clear-cut as those examples, but goals like those should never count. How offside goals don't fall under the scope of video review in 2015 is beyond me. If a goal is scored after an illegal zone entry and the puck never leaves the zone, the goal should never count. If there's an illegal entry, then a clearing of the zone and two minutes later a goal is scored, you can't review that. 

It's great that goaltender interference goals/no-goals could get second looks, but there are so many other things missed consistently by officials that aren't even on the table for video review.

In the non-coaches' challenge milieu, there's one thing that deserves a second look.

6. All five-minute major penalties are reviewed

Just like with goals, all of these would be reviewed in Toronto. College football does something similar, as hits that target the head result in an automatic ejection, but if a review shows the hit to be clean, the penalty is overturned. That's what the NHL needs to adopt.

There wouldn't be too many that get overturned, but the game is so fast, and referees can be influenced by a head snapping back or a crowd, so why not make sure a potential game-deciding penalty call is the correct one? Being able to review head shots, especially, is a nice safety net.

It's great that the NHL is looking into using video review but it's a shame that more missed calls won't be subject to a second look when it would make the game better.

Quote of the Week: Jon Cooper vs. Darryl Sutter

Lightning coach Jon Cooper and Kings coach Darryl Sutter are the two most quotable coaches in the NHL. Each week, we will let you decide who had the best quote.

Jon Cooper showed this week that he's just like any other NHL coach; if a player on his team unleashes a clearly dirty, careless hit, blame the victim of the hit.

Here's Nikita Kucherov just burying Tobias Enstrom of the Winnipeg Jets last week.

And here's Cooper putting the blame on Enstrom.

Darryl Sutter, meanwhile, opened his Monday night postgame press conference with a statement about what's important as his Kings battle for a playoff spot.

"Happy St. Patrick’s Day. Is anybody Irish in here? Half-Irish?"

Thank you again, L.A. Kings Insider. 

Las Vegas hockey

The season-ticket drive in Las Vegas is slowly, but surely, on its way to reaching 10,000 deposits, as the ownership group announced it's at around 9,000. It's taken more than a month to reach this point, but the goal of 10,000 will eventually be met.

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal's Alan Snell, potential majority owner Bill Foley hopes the team will be ready for the 2016-17 season. James Mirtle of the Globe and Mail believes a 31-team NHL is a possibility, at least for a few years while the league figures out Seattle and a possible relocation by the Coyotes, who recently announced they lost nearly $35 million during 2013-14 season.

Should the Coyotes lose another $15 million over the next four seasons, including this one, ownership could invoke an out-clause and relocate the team.

Since people panic over dumb things, let me ease your minds about a league with an odd number of teams: the NHL had 21 teams from 1979 to 1991, and you won't believe this, everything was fine. On the bright side, you won't hear people excitedly say, "Every NHL team is on the ice tonight!" Because, really, who cares when that happens?

It's time to focus on important stuff: What should Las Vegas' nickname be? Mirtle floats the idea of Black Aces, which sounds cool, but a black ace is a healthy scratch, a term you hear more in the playoffs, and what hockey player in his right mind wants that as a nickname?

I've got it narrowed down to: Broken Dreams, Regrettable Decisions, Questionable Buffets and Scorpions. I'm a little foggy on the logos, but the Regrettable Decisions logo would be a bleary-eyed man standing in front of a casino ATM at 3 in the morning while holding a beer. 

I truly can't wait for Vegas hockey.

Who Is Connor McDavid-ing This Week?

The tank battle for Connor McDavid will be quite the scene this season as teams stumble over each other to finish last in the standings, thus guaranteeing either McDavid or future American hero Jack Eichel.

Andy Devlin/Getty Images

30. Buffalo Sabres (19-43-7, 45 points): Two points in three games as a result of shootout losses have the Sabres on the rise. While management has embraced the tank since Day 1, clearly the players are still trying. If they weren't, players would flip pucks into the stands during shootout attempts. And they should do that. It'd be great.

29. Edmonton Oilers (19-39-12, 50 points): It was a tough break for the Oilers to find the Leafs on the schedule this week. I'm not sure if anyone can intentionally lose to the Leafs now. With five of their next six games against non-playoff teams, the dream of finishing 30th may be soon dying.

28. Arizona Coyotes (21-41-8, 50 points): Next week, the Coyotes will face the Sabres twice in five days. If the Coyotes don't figure a way to give everyone on the roster food poisoning before those games, they simply don't care about winning.

Goal of the Week

When you think "goal of the week," you always think "Derek MacKenzie and Dave Bolland."

So it's no surprise they teamed for this ridiculous goal against Michael Hutchinson.

Bonus from that video: You can hear the word "grit" being used to describe Bolland during a replay.

Questions and Answers

Got a question? Tweet me @davelozo or email me at [e-mail], but please don't call before 9 a.m. I will answer any of your questions about hockey or whatever if it's a good question.

"

@DaveLozo who you got in the ECF and WCF? #StanleyCupPlayoffs

— Benjamin (@StormerBenjamin) March 16, 2015"

I don't know. Great hashtag, though.

No.

I don't know.

They are going through a goal-scoring regression anyone with a remedial understanding of analytics could have spotted. The Predators are scoring 2.13 goals per game since trading for Cody Franson and Mike Santorelli 15 games ago. It's a real shame they didn't add offense before the deadline.

I don't know what simulating the season means.

I expect it to be on 8 x 11 paper and contain lots of legal jargon. It may be multiple pages.

I'd give it to Peter Laviolette of the Predators. Bob Hartley of the Flames will probably win it because most people in this business don't have any clue what they're doing. It'll probably go Hartley-Laviolette-Jack Capuano in some order. Or maybe it won't. I don't know. How can I possibly know this?

The top eight in the East hasn't changed since Jan. 7. So no. My answer is no. This has not been the most craziest playoff race in a while.

All statistics via NHL.com and Stats.HockeyAnalysis.com. Cap information via Spotrac.

Dave Lozo covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter: @DaveLozo.