Sonny wrote:If the ball is going toward the face-off officials' goal (as the New Lead), the SS will have to cover. The team entitled to possession will be screaming for the quick restart, regardless of whether the officials are ready or not.
True, but the single side (or center, for those who prefer that term) has the face-off official's goal on a face-off anyway. The trail would have the restart, so the face-off official (now the lead) can break down the field as well.
And, yes, the players will want a quick restart—and we'll try to oblige—but there are other times during the game they're begging for a whistle and we don't give it to them because we can't; they'll just have to deal with it when it happens.
The biggest problem with this rule is that if A1 jumps early and knows he's going to get busted, he's going to rake the ball away to give himself time to get off. You can give him a delay of game, but only if it's clear that it wasn't part of his attempt to play the faceoff (e.g., if you never blow the whistle and tell them to stand up and he rakes it away, throw the flag, but if he goes early but you still blow the whistle and he rakes it away, you can't really give the delay penalty).