NEW YORK -- As the NHL eyes expanded video review, its unli

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NEW YORK -- As the NHL eyes expanded video review, its unlikely to solve problems with goaltender interference. Bob Young . The leagues competition committee met Monday, two days after a controversial goal in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup final that involved contact on Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist, and discussed making more situations subject to review. But because of the variables present, theres no comfort level about making goaltender interference reviewable. "I think the underlying fundamental here is that if youre going to go to video review in a given area, there is the expectation of certainty," said Mathieu Schneider, the NHLPAs special assistant to the executive director. "And its just not there. Its very difficult. The type of things that were talking about, a possible coachs challenge, are things that we might be able to be certain on. But theres still a ton of grey area." The Kings goal Saturday night that helped them build a 2-0 series lead was not the reason goaltender interference came up at the annual meeting, but its certainly a hotter topic because of it. The leagues general managers will discuss it Wednesday as well, but executive vice president and director of hockey operations Colin Campbell expects there to be more education on the subject in lieu of video review. "Education thats meant for our players and our referees regarding how to call goaltender interference in various situations, so to be more defined in that area -- if it doesnt take another step, meaning some sort of video review on it," Campbell said. Nothing was resolved in terms of defining what video review could include next season, something that the GMs could try to hash out later this week. There are many possibilities. "We talked about pucks over the glass, we talked about offside goals," Campbell said. "Then, it comes to the question if its an offside play: how much time? Is it five seconds? Is it 10 seconds? Change of possession? On the rush? Puck leaving the zone? What if a minor occurs during that time and a goal was scored but the play was offside? Does the minor come down? Does a double-minor come down? Does a major come down?" A coachs challenge system could be part of that process, requiring a timeout to use one. But coaches would not be able to request a review on goaltender interference. The competition committee made some more solid recommendations on rule changes that GMs discussed at their March meeting in Boca Raton, Fla., most of which are designed to create more goals, including a more lenient interpretation of kicked-in goals and moving the faceoff-circle hashmarks back from 3 1/2 to 5 feet to give offensive teams more room to operate. "Theres a feeling that, again, this can create more offence, that forwards on a won draw in the offensive zone will have more time to make plays, more room to make plays off winning draws," Schneider said. "And then on the flip side, its going to reduce the amount of scrums that we have off faceoffs separating those two players a little bit more." If approved by the GMs, board of governors and NHLPA executive committee like all of these changes must be in order to go into effect, on icing calls, the offending team wont be able to replace the original player taking the faceoff as a way of delaying. One violation would bring a warning and second would bring a minor penalty. Small overtime adjustments also got the green light from the group, which included GMs Ken Holland of the Detroit Red Wings, David Poile of the Nashville Predators, Don Maloney of the Phoenix Coyotes and Peter Chiarelli of the Boston Bruins, Philadelphia Flyers chairman Ed Snider and players Ron Hainsey, Kevin Shattenkirk, Daniel Winnik, Michel Cammalleri and Cory Schneider. Teams will change ends and the ice will get a dry scrape before the five-minute overtime in the regular season. The goal is to have more games decided in overtime and fewer in shootouts, with the long change like the second period representing the first step. "Historically in our league, more goals are scored in the second period than the first and third, and were hoping the long change would affect in a positive way goal scoring so we change ends in overtime now in the playoffs, so we thought why not," Campbell said. "We thought that was a silly reason to not change ends." One new recommendation is to make the trapezoid behind the nets four feet bigger to give goaltenders more room to handle the puck. Schneider has pointed to the safety of defencemen as the reason. "Weve been talking about the trapezoid for a couple of years now, and the idea of either eliminating the trapezoid or expanding it to give more relief to defencemen going back to retrieve pucks," Scheider said. "Goalies would have better opportunity to get their defencemen out of danger zones." And while there wasnt much of a consensus about video review, embellishment seems to be a different story. The next step is figuring out how to solve the issue. "We feel embellishment in the game is a real problem today," Campbell said. "We understand players try to draw penalties. We feel its out of control, and weve discussed another approach at embellishment, similar to the rule thats already in the rule book. But there would not be a game suspension attached to that, there would be a warning and fines." That could include fining coaches and organizations along with players, Campbell added. While that could help curb one problem that has been part of these playoffs, goalie interference remains an almost unsolvable issue. Even the Game 2 situation brought what Schneider called a "split room" on whether it should have counted or not. "Theres a lot of instances where you have two reasonable people looking at the same video and have two different interpretations, and goalie interference is certainly one of those," Schneider said. "I think the education process is whats going to be most important for the officials, for the players, and I think Colin alluded to, we want to maybe err on the side of the goalie more often. Well, thats the direction we have to give to the officials. "The education process is going to be key. And to have certain telltale signs." Tom Forrest . The Rainbow FlickNext up is the Rainbow Flick, or as you probably know it, the trick that everybody at soccer camp thought they knew how to do. Pervis Atkins . Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema scored two goals each Wednesday night in a 6-1 rout of Schalke in the first leg of their second-round matchup. "We played a very, very good match," Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti said. "We got well into the match, scored two early goals and that opened the game and left us able to counter and to use the speed of our players. https://www.cheapnfljerseyschina.co/doug-winslow-jersey-for-sale/ . -- Canadian mens rugby coach Kieran Crowley has made four changes to his starting roster for Saturdays Pacific Nations Cup clash against the United States.TORONTO - Jermain Defoe has been where Gilberto is — under the microscope and unable to score goals. Defoe insists its only a matter of time before his Toronto FC strike partner starts finding the net. And hes told Gilberto the same thing several times. "Everyones trying to talk to him, not just me. The manager and everyone. . . all the boys are just trying to be positive," Defoe said. "Im sure hes experienced enough to know its just a matter of time. Hes been unlucky. "Hopefully when he gets the first one, hell score many more. Still got a long way to go, its a long season." Toronto FC (4-4-1) hosts the Columbus Crew (4-4-4) at BMO Field on Saturday, a game that coach Ryan Nelsen said, in the event of a victory, could "springboard us forward for the rest of the season" Gilberto was part of Torontos much-celebrated off-season makeover, acquired to boost the clubs underpowered offence. The 24-year-old Brazilian has come oh so close numerous times, banging shots off the post and sending balls just wide of the net. But he remains without a goal in eight Major League Soccer appearances. And with his near-misses comes increasing scrutiny, which Defoe said comes "part and parcel with playing football." "I suppose at any level really where youve got to perform, people will expect you to perform, and obviously if you dont people are going to ask questions," Defoe said after Fridays practice at the clubs sun-drenched training grounds just north of the city. "But on the flip side, when youre playing well and youre scoring goals, everyone loves it and you get all the praise. So if its not going well, I suppose you have to just take it on the chin, as they say in England." Nelsen joked that hes played through goal-scoring droughts that lasted years — he, of course, was a defender. But he believes the scrutiny is a bit unfair. "Strikers, they get referred to as goalscoring, with defenders its conceding, . . sometimes (playing) just feels wrong. And its not just in football, its in your job," Nelsen told reporters. "You have a couple of months where its just tough, things just dont seem to go your way. Its life. "The only trouble in our job is everybody is watching you when it happens. Everybody talks about it, everybody wants to know about it, everybodys picking your brain about it. You all go through it, sometimes its just more out front, its just right out there in the media." Gilberto scored 14 goals in 24 games for Portuguesa of Brazils top division last season. He signed with Toronto as a Designated Player in December, and is set to earn US$1.2 million this season — 12th highest in MLS. One TFC official mused before the season kicked off that the Brazilian may score even more goals than Defoe, but the former Tottenham Hotspur striker leads the way with four goals in six games. "I think every striker has been through speells where at some stage in the season you might go a few games without scoring," Defoe said. Antonio Smith. "But youve just got to keep working hard and getting into position where youre going to score. Youve got to remain positive and thats all you can do really. "Obviously its difficult because your confidence gets really low. But hes working hard. Im sure its just a matter of time before he scores." Defoe missed Torontos previous game against Columbus with a hamstring injury — a 2-0 road victory on April 5 that boosted the teams record to 3-1. Both Defoe and Nelsen said they like where the team is positioned right now. Theres a sense that its turned the corner after a disappointing stretch. "Were starting to strengthen ourselves and trust our squad and get a bit hardened," Nelsen said. "Going to have our ups and downs of course, but were starting to become an MLS squad which is literally competitive in every game. And considering what we inherited here, its a good little evolution. "I know everybody wants to just flip the switch and you go from nobodies to champions overnight and it doesnt happen like that. If you just step back, you can look where we were and look where we are, you kind of see an evolution or developments that other teams — probably because they werent as low as us — are not making. Thats what I like about our team, everybodys just getting a wee bit better, and the squads just getting a wee bit better every day." Nelsen was happy to have midfielders Jonathan Osorio (hamstring) and Jackson Goncalves (concussion) back practising Friday. The two will be available to play against the Crew. "Im anxious to come back. I hate missing games, obviously. I even hate missing practices," said the Toronto-born Osorio. "Im more excited that Im healthy, Im feeling good, so Im excited (Saturday) to just play without any worries, without any knocks on me, and to be 100 per cent." The club will be missing captain and defender Steven Caldwell, who will serve his suspension for a red-card he received in Torontos last league game — a 2-2 draw at Kansas City. Coincidentally, Toronto was also missing Caldwell in last months meeting. "Hopefully we can repeat that (win with him)," Nelsen said. "But I think youve seen in Bradley Orr, and Doneil Henry and Nick Hagglund weve got some pretty decent cover there, so hopefully whoever plays at centre back will be right up for it." Toronto will also be without recently-acquired midfielder Collen Warner. "His brother is getting married in Denver, and hes the best man," Nelsen said. "On several levels, us guys may have told him to tell his brother hes making a bad mistake," Nelsen added, laughing. "(Warner) says hes batting well above his average, so he should do it as soon as he can so. . . To tell you the truth, thats like me exactly." ' ' '