A radical experiment with the rules of ice hockey: Jäähyt to a new faith

Tappara celebrated the CHL victory last season. Mika Kylmäniemi / AOP

In the upcoming season, the CHL ice hockey league will see three changes that will shake up the basic rules of ice hockey.

The two-minute timeout continues even if the team with the upper hand scores a goal. Correspondingly, the ice-out ends if the underpowered team succeeds in scoring.

The third rule reform concerns the transferred penalty. A two-minute time-out is condemned, even if the team waiting to gain the upper hand succeeds in scoring a goal during that time.

The rules are therefore floated on their head from the traditional model.

Ilves published the first news about the rule changes shaking the puck world, although apparently prematurely. The Tampere club deleted its tweet quickly, but the message spread quickly among the puck crowd.

Ilves confirmed to Iltalehti that the rule changes are indeed true. The clubs were informed about it in connection with the CHL draw ceremony on Wednesday.

New format

The CHL season 2023–24 starts at the end of August. In the upcoming season, only 24 teams will participate instead of the previous 32. Finnish clubs include Tappara, Ilves, Lukko and Pelicans. Tappara is the reigning champion.

In the coming season, the CHL will no longer play in groups. Instead, on Tuesday, the teams were drawn into four groups of six teams.

After this, six opponents were drawn for each team. Each team has three home and three away games.

After this, the 16 teams with the most points advance to the CHL playoffs. The champion will be decided in the final match on February 20.