Goal crease differences & location of benches

[SethPDX]

Originally Posted by chseagle

I am curious as to why in NCAA Hockey, all rinks are not designed the same way throughout & follow NHL/WHL layouts.

Because not all rinks are the same age. There was a time when the rules called for putting the team benches were on opposite sides. Now they're supposed to be on the same side. Some rinks can be changed easily to fit this, some can't. Rulemakers know this and make allowances for it.

I know in the WHL, Brandon has the benches on opposite sides. For another example of allowances made for older buildings, Portland's Memorial Coliseum used to be only about 185' long (which was okay when it opened) until last season when it finally got extended to the standard 200'.

As for the goal crease thing, I think the NHL wanted to cut down on crease violations so they just made the crease smaller, but I don't know that for sure.