Working the rules

There's a reason Dave Tippett and Dan Bylsma were asked to participate in this year's NHL Research and Development Camp, and part of it is their adaptability. Faced with a rule change that prevented a shorthanded team from icing the puck, Bylsma opted to pull his goalie to create 6-on-4 advantage.

It backfired, however, when Tippett's team was able to score a shorthanded goal into an empty net.

"You can't ice it, but if you get any kind of possession, you're going to get a chance," said Tippett. "What happens when you're 6-on-4 is you get four guys around the net banging away, like a frantic last minute. Then it's 2-on-2 up top and you're an even-man battle up there, and then just like what happened, they had a guy fall down and we scored on an empty net."

Tippett said had he never thought to pull his goalie -- it became a moot point because his team didn't have any power plays in the second session -- but he had other plans in mind for when his team got the advantage.

"We talked about some different scenarios that we'd do, but we were on the other side, where we're trying to push them in," said Tippett. "If they did ice it, we were going to have some faceoff plays, line up quick, see if we can push them when they're tired rather than pull the goalies."

Contact Adam Kimelman at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @NHLAdamK

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