Could Rink Alterations Be On Their Way

Special events are a great time for the NHL to try out new rules, regulations, styles, and ideas. Some of these ideas are may just be special for that event and they may have no intention of ever going forward with them. However, some ideas do come to fruition. For our site, we tend to focus on the visual concepts that the NHL has tested during these events.

Last year, in the 2018 All Star weekend, the NHL introduced the concept of designs/patterns inside the blue lines, much like the league already uses for the red lines. The red line design was an invention of the 50’s-60’s as a way for home viewers to distinguish the red line from the blue lines on their black and white televisions. Now it is just something that teams can have some fun with. Following the All Star game, I wondered if the NHL would start allowing blue line designs, but that does not seem to be the case. This year for the All Star game in San Jose, the league brought us multicolored “Blue Lines”. Now I do not see any chance of these returning in any official capacity unless it is another special event.

There was one more notable feature though that I believe the league might be testing out. The red line was absent inside the center circle for the first time. Now we have seen this line partially obstructed in previous special events, but never completely absent. There is no longer a two-line pass rule, so the red line really only serves one purpose now, and that pertains to the icing rule. This does bring up the question of whether or not the league might consider allowing teams to remove the red line inside the circle as some other leagues have done.

I am partial to the red line and the designs that come with them, and I think it also forces some teams to be a bit more creative with their center ice design. I would hate to see this line disappear – after all, the red line was there long before large logos came along. However, I know a lot of people would love to see the line removed and some feel upset by the fact that their team’s primary logo is cut apart but a line that no longer serves as much of a purpose as it once did.

What are your thoughts?

Do you think we will see the red line disappear in the circle in the next few years? Would you like to see this happen?

Let us know in the comments below.