Jamie Nye: Dumb rule sinks Vegas

I speak of the awful delay-of-game penalty when a player accidentally clears the puck over the glass in the defensive zone.

The rule came to be as the NHL wanted to stop a team from flipping the puck over the glass to get a whistle. It was happening. If a team was caught in its zone, it’d shoot the puck into the seats instead of icing the puck.

But here’s the thing, referees are now penalizing accidents.

There is no way Zach Whitecloud should be penalized for reaching around an attacking player to knock the puck away, especially in overtime of a playoff game when officials wouldn’t penalize attempted murder if it happened during the play.

He didn’t clear the puck to get a change.

It’s a simple fix. You treat it like an icing, with no penalty, you’re not allowed to change and the puck is dropped in your zone.

But this is a league with plenty of ridiculous rules, so don’t expect a change now.