NHL center ice

The raging debate over head shots and concussions will surely dominate the three-day general managers meeting that begins Monday in Boca Raton, Fla. But there are a number of other issues that may be discussed that are of interest around the league:

Shootouts/OT.
Following up on Brendan Shanahan’s research and development camp from August, which used junior players to try out different situations, the GMs may discuss changing the overtime format to four minutes of four-on-four followed by four minutes of three-on-three. The goal is to reduce the number of shootouts, which are back to average yearly levels after being down in the first half of the season.

Coaches’ challenges.
This idea was brought up last March and shot down fairly quickly. An NFL-style challenge to possible missed calls or missed goals doesn’t have much traction, because the NHL’s hockey operations group reviews everything goal-related in-game and no coach could challenge a penalty call, anyway.

Montreal cops investigate Chara hit

Zdeno Chara is facing the possibility of a criminal charge by the Montreal police for his hit on the Canadiens’ Max Pacioretty on Tuesday. Somehow, a hit that drew a major and a game misconduct but no further discipline from the NHL is now becoming a possible criminal case in Canada.

The NHL has tried hard to steer clear of courts investigating on-ice incidents — there hasn’t been one in the United States since 1975, when a Minnesota court charged Bruins forward Dave Forbes with assault for attacking the North Stars’ Henry Boucha, and that nine-day trial ended in a hung jury.

In Canada, though, things have been different. Two of the most damaging incidents in the last dozen years, Marty McSorley slashing Donald Brashear in the head in 2000 and Todd Bertuzzi’s punch from behind on Steve Moore in 2004, drew criminal charges in Vancouver.

McSorley was convicted of assault and given an 18-month conditional discharge; Bertuzzi pleaded guilty to assault and was also given a conditional discharge.

Only one NHL player has gotten jail time for an on-ice incident. The North Stars’ Dino Ciccarelli got a day in jail in Toronto for his stick-swinging attack on Leafs defenseman Luke Richardson in 1988; the incident is ugly, even by the freer standards of the 1980s NHL, considering that Ciccarelli got only a 10-game suspension, likely because Richardson wasn’t injured.

Ciccarelli was elected to the Hall of Fame last year.

According to the Sports Law Blog, edited by law professor Michael McCann, Canadian law requires intent to convict for assault. So Chara would seem to be in the clear, since his league’s governing body cleared him of any intent to injure.

Delay-of-game penalty.

Leafs GM Brian Burke reportedly wants his fellow GMs to review whether the delay-of-game penalty for a puck directly over the glass should be called during a penalty kill, leaving a team two men short.

Home not so sweet

A big reason the Rangers are fighting for their playoff lives is their poor record at Madison Square Garden — they are one of only four teams in the league with a sub-.500 record at home. The Sabres, fighting with the Rangers for the last playoff spots in the East, are one of the other three.

The last team to make the playoffs with a .500 record at home was the 2002-03 Islanders, who were 18-18-5-0 at the Coliseum. The last sub-.500 home record for a playoff team was 17-19-5 for the 1998-99 Oilers, who had only 78 points.

Stat lines

One area that is statistically in the Rangers’ favor for making the playoffs is goal differential — heading into Saturday’s game, the Rangers had a plus-26 goal differential, fourth-best in the East.

Since the lockout, only five teams with double-digit goal differentials have missed the postseason:

In 2005-06, the Wild finished 11 with a goal differential of +16.
In 2006-07, the Avalanche finished 9th with a goal differential of +21.
In 2007-08, the Sabres finished 10th with a goal differential of +13.
In 2008-09, the Sabres finished 10th with a goal differential of +16.
In 2008-09, the Wild finished 9th with a goal differential of +19.