Tony Mariconda passed along this interpretation of the fast face-off procedure, provided by USA Hockey:

Situation: In the second period, Team A is set for a face-off in their defending zone. The line change procedure has been completed when Team A realizes that they only have 4 players on the ice when they should have 5 players. If Team A is now allowed to correct this situation they would be delaying the face-off, since a player would have to come from their bench at the far end of the ice. What is the correct ruling?

Ruling: The officials cannot allow a team to run a "sleeper" play by placing too few players on the ice deliberately and then adding a player after the face-off. However, they cannot allow a team to circumvent the new face-off rule by deliberately delaying their substitutions either.

In this case, if the officials feel that Team A made an honest mistake, they should warn Team A, allow the fifth player to come on to the ice before the face-off, and remove Team A's center from that face-off. Any subsequent violations would then result in a Delay of Game penalty.

If the officials feel that this violation was a deliberate attempt to the delay the game, then the Delay of Game penalty must be assessed immediately.