Longtime readers of my blogs have heard me say this before: the hockey Rule Book isn't merely a collection of regulations and enforcement criteria. It is also a history book. In many cases, the adoption of certain rules and standards can be traced back to reactions to specific incidents.

For example, let's look at Dallas Stars goalie Anton Khudobin getting busted for using illegal tape on his goalie stick in the team's current playoff series against the Calgary Flames. By the rule, goalies "must have a knob of WHITE tape or some other protective material approved by the League at the top of their goalie stick shaft."

Khudobin's tape was green, all the way up to the knob of the stick. There is no penalty for it, but the goalie can be compelled to retape the stick or the officials can remove it from play and the goalie must replace it with a rule-compliant stick.

There are several NHL goalies who either violate this rule -- or push it right to the limit, such as Braden Holtby's "barely compliant" white tape on the end with red tape leading all the way up to it; technically legal but not within the spirit of the rule.

Why does this rule even exist? It exists because, until relatively recent times, stick tape came only in two colors: white or black. The reason why goalies were compelled to use white tape atop the stick was that black tape on the knob could be mistaken for the puck (especially relevant in the pre-replay era).

Since there's no power play resulting from an illegal tape challenge, many coaches are either unaware of the rule (but equipment managers know it) or they simply let it slide. It's only cited very rarely, trying to disrupt focus and take a goalie off his game.

It happened once before in the playoffs that I can recall; with Florida goaltender John Vanbiesbrouck (whose stick tape was entirely red). It's happened a few times in the regular season, as well. Roger Neilson and Fred Shero, both of whom used to study the Rule Book regularly to look for loopholes and obscure rules they could use to their advantage, each nabbed several goalies for black tape. More recently, I recall a regular season game where Edmonton's Ben Scrivens had to re-tape during a shootout.

Another rule that caused recent confusion: If a defending player intentionally pushes the net off its moorings to prevent a scoring chance, as Calgary's Mark Giordano did last game against Dallas with his "accidentally deliberate" slide into the net, is it a penalty or a penalty shot?

Answer: It depends on the time of game. If it's the third period and there is less than two minutes left on the clock, it's a penalty shot. If there are two minutes or more left in regulation, it's a minor penalty.

If you rewatch the sequence, the referee initially pointed to center ice but the officials ultimately got it right.

Now for the history aspect: This rule came into place after the NHL changed nets following a very serious injury sustained by Hartford Whalers star Mark Howe. The future Hockey Hall of Famer got impaled on the spike that, for many years, affixed the net to the ice. The good part about the old-school net was that it was very hard to dislodge them. The bad part was that they became extremely dangerous if someone slid full force into them.

When the NHL switched first to magnets and later to the current pegs, there was a reverse trade-off: they were much safer for players, but they came off too easily (especially the magnets). Very quickly defending players realized they could simply nudge the net off its moorings and get a whistle. That was rectified by making it illegal to do so.

However, it also created a different issue. If a team was defending a lead within the final two minutes it could be worthwhile strategically to take the penalty rather than give up a high-danger chance near the net. Thus, in that instance, the penalty shot replaces the minor penalty.

Did you know that, prior to World War II, the NHL used a two-referee system? That's right, sometimes what's old is what's new. The standard in the pre-war era was two referees, one linesman. Wartime hardships caused the longtime change to one referee.

Way back when, the NHL only employed referees full-time. Local linesmen were used and paid on an ad hoc basis. That changed after the infamous incident in which Rocket Richard punched out linesman Cliff Thompson.

At any rate, the next time that an obscure rule comes up during a game, it's probably worth your while to research it: Why does it exist? When was it put in place? Doing so enables us to not only know more about the history of our game but also to prevent rare but useful rules from being stricken while eliminating the ones that are truly obsolete.


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A 2018 inductee into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, Paul Stewart holds the distinction of being the first U.S.-born citizen to make it to the NHL as both a player and referee. On March 15, 2003, he became the first American-born referee to officiate in 1,000 NHL games.

Visit Paul's official websites, YaWannaGo.com and Officiating by Stewart.