Team Violation Before Faceoff

[laxref53]

Scenario:

Team A has 9 players on field ready for faceoff and 10th player is on the field, running to his position, when timer goes off. He is not in required position when timer signals end of 20 seconds. Team B has all 10 players in position and ready for play. Delay of game to Team A.

Do we send Team A faceoff man off and use new pre-whistle procedure or do we simply award ball to Team B?

[LaxRef]

Scenario:

Team A has 9 players on field ready for faceoff and 10th player is on the field, running to his position, when timer goes off. He is not in required position when timer signals end of 20 seconds. Team B has all 10 players in position and ready for play. Delay of game to Team A.

Do we send Team A faceoff man off and use new pre-whistle procedure or do we simply award ball to Team B?

This is a good question and has been debated for some time. Most of us agree that this is not a "pre-whistle face-off violation," so we would not send off the face-off middie. As far as the majority is concerned, the face-off doesn't start until you say "down."

If the face-off middie delays going down when you say "down," that would be a pre-whistle face-off violation.

There is no "official" word on this, but this seems to make sense to those of us who debate such issues regularly.

Make sense?

[laxref53]

That's what we came up with as an answer. Makes sense given the number of violations that could occur before we're ready to conduct a faceoff-- all, obviously, pre-whistle.

This whole thing is a "work in progress".

[laxfan25]

In my opinion this IS a pre-whistle violation and I'd send off the FO middie. This is an extension what was discussed about wing men or A or D players being out of the box. I was instructed that in these cases the FO man would be required to leave.
I think there will be many more clarifications coming out about this rule.

[LaxRef]

In my opinion this IS a pre-whistle violation and I'd send off the FO middie. This is an extension what was discussed about wing men or A or D players being out of the box. I was instructed that in these cases the FO man would be required to leave.
I think there will be many more clarifications coming out about this rule.

We have just a few new rules here:

Before a faceoff, if a wing player commits a technical violation, that team’s face-off man must leave the field through the special-substitution area as the official begins play with a quick restart at midfield.

A.R. 2. As soon as A1 is whistled for a faceoff violation, can he sprint to he specialsubstitution area so his substitute can enter the field of play. RULING: Yes.

When a faceoff violation occurs before the whistle, the offending team’s faceoff player must leave the field and be substituted for through the special-substitution area.

I don't see how any of that applies to a delay of game. Delay of game is not a face-off violation, and you can't even define a wing player until we're ready for the face-off.

Further, I have no violation on the wing or the restraining line unless the player is over the line when the whistle blows; at that point, he must have been in violation before the whistle blew. But if A2 is on the wing, he steps over the line, then steps back before the whistle, I don't see how you can call anything on him. Same with the restraining line.

[Dan Wishengrad]

The new rule was fairly interesting in execution. Things we learned:

1) If a FOGO hestitates even an instant after the ref says "Down" he can get sent off the field as the ref awards the other team the ball. I asked my guy after one such infraction what he did wrong, the answer was "the other guy just went down faster..." Hmmmmm

2) When your own team gets awarded the faceoff possession, you better coach your FOGO to take only one step over the line. There were a couple slow re-starts that denied us our fast-break because our guy cheated down the offensive end and the ref -- correctly-- withheld the whistle until he backed up to the midfield. Dumb. We'll learn to get that right next time!

[LaxRef]

The new rule was fairly interesting in execution. Things we learned:

1) If a FOGO hestitates even an instant after the ref says "Down" he can get sent off the field as the ref awards the other team the ball. I asked my guy after one such infraction what he did wrong, the answer was "the other guy just went down faster..." Hmmmmm

If one guy is clearly delaying, that's the right call. But if the other guy is trying to go down super fast to make it look like the other guy is delaying, no call!

2) When your own team gets awarded the faceoff possession, you better coach your FOGO to take only one step over the line. There were a couple slow re-starts that denied us our fast-break because our guy cheated down the offensive end and the ref -- correctly-- withheld the whistle until he backed up to the midfield. Dumb. We'll learn to get that right next time!

We were told not to make the player stop if he had to run back to get the ball and then run back to get it over midfield. And the whistle should be super quick so that the offended team gets their full advantage. I don't think were supposed to be super picky about a few steps over midfield, since we're supposed to get play started immediately anyway.

[LaxRef]

2) When your own team gets awarded the faceoff possession, you better coach your FOGO to take only one step over the line. There were a couple slow re-starts that denied us our fast-break because our guy cheated down the offensive end and the ref -- correctly-- withheld the whistle until he backed up to the midfield. Dumb. We'll learn to get that right next time!

I spoke with another official who said that the guys were taking off before possession had been signaled and before the whistle; that clearly needs to be stopped. If the guy is standing still a few yards over midfield when I'm ready to blow my whistle, I don't think I need to move him back, but he can't start running before I blow the whistle in that situation.