1 question regarding the refs in the WC

[steph]

i noticed in the game today that after a whistle, one of the refs is always skating in front of the benches and watches the changes. then he counts the players coming on and then shows his 5 fingers to each bench meaning like 'your 5 boys are on'. i've never seen that before

example:

[Sniper]

he's saying that the vistiting team can't make anymore changes. The home team then get 5 seconds to make a last minute change if they want. After that, the referee's hand goes down and no more changes are allowed. The Linesman will drop the puck then. You probably don't notice it because most leagues only use one referee

[miniDufour]

Isn't that the 15 second rule?

Away team gets 10 seconds after whistling to make their linechanges, then the ref raises his arm and the home team gets 5 seconds to do their linechanges. At the end of the 5 seconds, the puck is dropped...

Don't know if they use this rule in NHL, but in Europe (or at least, the danish league), they do!

[Johan Eriksson]

Yes, it's basically that ruel, though it's only that strictly enforced in theory. The refs do drop the puck these days, even if all players aren't on the ice, but they certainly wait longer than that.

A good thing about using NHL refs is that the linesmen drop the puck a lot faster. In Europe they often seem amused to wait and fool the face off guy so that they move to early and gets substituted. It's nice not having to see that.