The goalie trapezoid.
It may go away. It doesn't have a ton of steam right now apparently, but there is talk about adding a third defenseman on the ice by unshackling the goaltender from his slant-sided prison.
Shanahan addressed the issue and said that basically, it won't matter if the trapezoid was on the ice or not. During some play during the preseason in development camp, things are tweeked to see how they would work in the real world.
"We took out the trapezoid rule and yet the goalies still had no time to come out and play the puck," Shanahan said Wednesday afternoon. "I think the idea of goaltenders coming out and having all day to set the puck up, tee it up are gone simply because of the lack of the defenseman's ability to hold up the forecheckers now and clutch and grab through the neutral zone. So even though we said to the goalies go play the puck, they had no time."
Based on that, I say get rid of it. I've never liked the idea anyway. But if it doesn't matter, why have it? If you get rid of it, then you aren't stopping a goalie who has the rare opportunity to actually tee it up.
Is it a safety issue? I don't think so. Some argue that is puts goalies in a more vulnerable position, but I would say the very definition of a goaltender reduces that dramatically. If the puck is down the ice and there's a footrace going on between two players, then the goalie will stay in the goal 9 times out of 10. Let the defense sort it out. In that one time they come out, the goalie is really confident they can at least poke the puck away and retreat back to their crease.
Again, it doesn't happen that often that the goalie will want to come out and play the puck along the boards in the current "no-play" zone. I don't see the need for the rule. I have been paying close attention to this ever since it was put into place because I thought it was stupid at the time. And while I don't have numbers to back me up, I just don't see that many (almost nill) scoring opportunities created because the tender couldn't skate out and reach the puck. It's just so rare that the lazy puck sits there and an attacking player reaches it first, which was the original idea in the rule. More often than not, it's icing or reached by the defense. No point. It actually slows the game because the goalie can't come out and tee it up.
Please NHL GM's. Please get rid of the trapezoid.
