The preseason is just under a week old, as is the new mandate that fighting players cannot remover their helmets during a bout, but it didn’t take long for NHL enforcers to find a way to circumvent that new rule.
In the video below, Krys Barch of the Devils and Brett Gallant find a nifty loophole in the new rule. Instead of taking off their own helmets during the match, they engage and take each other’s helmet off. After the formailities are taken care of, Barch and Gallant engage in a solid battle, with each player throwing and landing his fair share of hay-makers.
“He talked to me: ‘You can take my helmet off.” Okay. This is getting pretty embarrassing. This doesn’t even feel natural. I want to fight,” Barch said of the incident.
Love the new rule or hate it, it looks like we might see more of this type of situation as the season progresses until the NHL fixes the loophole in the new rule.