The NHL made waves when they introduced new nets which had room for cameras inside the posts. The new nets, seen here, were brought in to hopefully give officials and reviewers another angle when trying to determine if a puck crossed the line. The results have been fairly inconclusive and now the NHL is hoping to introduce nets which have cameras mounted to the crossbar.
In addition, the league is looking to add cameras at the blueline in order to assist officials on reviews of close offside calls.
Via The Hockey News, the NHL has outlined that the cameras in the posts are often obscured by the goaltender when trying to examine a close play and the league is eager to try a top-down angle from the crossbar.
Senior vice president of hockey operations Kris King told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s Michael Russo that the league is planning to move the two cameras currently situated inside the posts to the crossbar to get a top-down look at close plays. The hope, Russo reported, is the league will have the cameras moved to the crossbar by the time the playoffs begin.
“We think it’ll give us a truer picture and a real look straight down from 4 feet away rather than the overhead on the rafters that can sometimes be distorted,” King told Russo. “Oftentimes there’s traffic or goalie gear locking out [the post] cameras, and what we saw at the All-Star Game looked fantastic.”
It seems like the goaltender may still obscure views of the crossbar camera, but it should provide an angle which is an enhanced version of the already solid view from the rafters. The blueline cameras would be a great help as they would offer a specific, direct angle along the ice which would assist in determining close offside calls.
At the very least, the NHL recognizes that the current system isn’t perfect and they’re trying to improve things. Cameras on the crossbar might not be at the top of the list as far as changed needed to be made involving the coach’s challenge (why are officials looking at such tiny screens when trying to make a review?), but it’s a move in the right direction.
