New focus on old faceoff rule has NHL fans fuming

If you had nothing better to do Monday night than check out pre-season NHL boxscores, you would have noticed numerous minor penalties for faceoff infractions.

There were three in the Toronto-Ottawa game alone. Same in the Washington-New Jersey game. And they had fans scratching their heads.

However, it's not a new rule — just ask the 2015 Ottawa Senators.

The NHL, at least in the pre-season, is simply calling it by the book, as they did with hooking and interference coming out of the 2004-05 lockout.

Rule 76.6 in the National Hockey League rule book states the following:

"When at least two face-off violations have been committed by the same team during the same faceoff, this team shall be penalized with a bench minor penalty to the offending team. This penalty shall be announced as a "Bench Minor Penalty for Delay of Game – Face-off Violation."

The violations vary, from failing to lineup properly to playing the puck by hand.