NHL Adopts Instant Replay to View Goals

The NHL became the second major professional sport to endorse the use of video replays. The league will employ a video judge in each arena to help the referee on goal calls.

“This is not going to eliminate all controversies with respect to goals,” league President John Ziegler said. “We can at least . . . provide assistance to those people, who, under great pressure and at very difficult times, have to make these difficult decisions.”

The rule might prove more difficult to implement than the NFL’s replay review because, unlike the NFL, not every NHL game is televised. But league officials said that every NHL team tapes all of its games for training purposes and that video would be available to the goal judge.

The replay will only be used in determining if the puck crossed the goal line; if it was kicked or thrown into the net or went off an official or if the puck crossed the goal line before the net was dislodged or before the end of a period occurred.