We all knew this was going to happen, and it took le s than a week into the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the new blue line cameras to fulfill their intended purpose. Cameras showed that Blues forward Jori Lehtera had one leg in the offensive zone before the puck got there, which officialssaid negated Vladimir Tarasenkos go-ahead goal. The Blackhawks went on to win 3-2. MORE: | But this new focus on offsides might have done all us a favor in the long run Sindarius Thornwell Jersey its showing us that the offside rule, as its written now, stinks. Here it is in full context (emphasis mine): 83.1 Off-side - Players of the attacking team must not precede the puck into the attacking zone. The position of the players skates and not that of his stick shall be the determining factor in all instances in deciding an off-side. A player is off-side when both skates are completely over the leading edge of the blue line involved in the play. A player is on-side when either of his skates are in contact with, or on his own side of the line, at the instant the puck completely cro ses the leading edge of the blue line regardle s of the position of his stick. However, a player actually controlling the puck who shall cro s the line ahead of the puck shall not be considered off-side, provided he had po se sion and control of the puck prior to his skates cro sing the blue line. It should be noted that while the position of the players skates is what determines whether a player is off-side, neverthele s the question of an off-side never arises until the puck has completely cro sed the leading edge of the blue line at which time the decision is to be made. If a player legally carries or pa ses the puck back into his own defending zone while a player of the opposing team is Lonzo Ball Jersey in such defending zone, the off-side shall be ignored and play permitted to continue. MORE: Heres the view of Lehteras positioning that determined that he was offside, though it should be noted that the blue line camera feed isnt available to viewers, sowe are seeing it at an angle on television. Lehtera offside, Tarasenko goal wiped out Marina Molnar (@mkmolnar) In this video, you can see the play as it happens. Three problems: One, is If Steven Adams Jersey youre going to implement replay and frame-by frame examination to uphold a rule, there better not be any ambiguity in that rule (Hello, whats a catch in the NFL?). Lehtera didnt fulfill the criteria for being onside because neither of his skates was in or in contact with the defensive side of the blue line when the puck entered the offensive zone. He also would not have fulfilled the criteria for being offside, which is BOTH skates completely over the leading edge of the blue line. If one skate was in the offensive zone and one skate was in the air, somewhere in the space between the defensive zone and the leading edge of the offensive zone, hes still not offside because both skates would not have been past the leading edge of the blue line. The rule doesnt account for the 12-inch wide space above the blue line, so if thats where his back skate was, is he offside or onside? Its not written into the rule, but it has been widely accepted that trailing skate in the air equals offsides. MORE: Which brings us to the second problem. Were not even sure the officialsgot the call right because the rule is ambiguous AND we cant see what they saw. Theres no transparency. Plus the officials on the ice are making this call while watching a handheld tablet, instead of letting someone in the NHLs war room, who can look at the replays on a giant HD TV screen, make the determination. And that brings us to the third problem, which is what in J.J. Redick Jersey the actual hell are we talking about here? Are we really saying that Lehtera gained an unfair advantage because his back foot was a few inches in the air as opposed to touching the ice? Rules are rules, yes. But things change, and the NHL changed how the offside rule was governed when it placed offside under frame-by-frame Oliver Stone-level scrutiny instead of leaving it as a judgement call. At full speed, officials were probably unlikely to call offside because of a trailing skate being a couple inches off the ice. The rules are written to catch egregious violations of the offside rule. Some rules are better left as judgement calls, and this is probably one of them. But if the NHL wants to leave it up to slow-motion replay and allow coaches to challenge it, the rule needs to be clarified and amplified to account for all spaces on the ice and for what really constitutes an unfair advantage. In this case, technology has exceeded the limitations of the written rule, but fallen short of the transparency the teams and fans Elfrid Payton Jersey deserve.