Potential Rules Changes for Next Season

[mikey287]

I don't think guys get hurt when it's a 50/50 puck. Guys get hurt when a forwards reaches/shoves in desperation. Really, what I want this to solve is the useless reaching forwards do. They have next to zero chance of negating the icing and it's a senseless dangerous play.
Look at Pikanen's injury from this year. Brower makes no attempt to play the puck at first. He hooks Pikanen's hands and throws him off balance. Then Fedun's injury from last years preseason. Nystrom is clearly boxed out from touching it and he causes Fedun to lose his balance and break his femur.
I'm all for races, but using the hashes and dots as an imaginary line incase a guy loses an edge or something he can still recover before going into the end wall. And these injuries are so much more horrific because when else are guys going full tilt top speed when a collision occurs? Not all that often, but it does happen.

Fair. I chalk those plays up more to just being dirty plays than an indictment of icing personally. But that's a fair point. I'm all for avoiding injuries where we can avoid them. But I'm uncomfortable changing long-standing things to make a very, very minimal impact. There are others more pressing things to be worrying about than icing if you want to make the game safer...but that's not the point of this particular conversation either.

[columbia]

How often does the team on offense win the puck on a potential icing call?
(I doubt that stat is kept...but who knows.)

I guess I just question how "exciting" it is, when the outcome is pretty much a given.
I don't see why you wouldn't take steps to minimize injuries, in light of that.

[mikey287]

I see it quite frequently. Obviously, no numbers. But there were a number of games this year that I saw where the cancelled icing turned into a quality chance or a goal. I think this happens more often than we realize. Maybe not once a game, but quite often.

If players were dropping left and right from icing plays, then yeah, it's worth it to minimize it. But like I said before (and not that it's a contest) but have more players gotten injured from skate cuts or from icing plays? We're treating a symptom that has no effect on the disease.

A guy has tuberculosis and all the stuff associated with that, but also, his feet sweat a lot as a result of the disease. The first pill he gets isn't to keep his feet from sweating, he's got bigger problems...just don't put on socks today...we have better things to worry about...

That said, I'm not gonna be all hardline against it...I just don't like the game to be tinkered with for no reason. Like the stupid trapezoid thing...shut up with that. Get those stupid lines off the rink and grow up...it didn't solve anything. Uh oh, now Mike Smith is slightly less effective, good job...

I'll say this, send it to a vote of the players, coaches and GMs...if 75% want the hybrid icing, I support it. They'd know better than I would...let them pick. If you're just goofing around with rules to prevent freak injuries then you have a full/fool time job on your hands...

[columbia]

Mathieu Schneider and Steve Yzerman both seem pretty open to hybrid icing:
http://thescore.com/nhl/articles/963221 ... ext-season

[mikey287]

Discontent citizens are always louder than content ones. Not to dismiss these guys individually at all, but like I said, 75% of the players/coaches/GMs say they want it then I do too...

[columbia]

Maybe you're the discontent citizen and not them?

[mikey287]

Maybe you're the discontent citizen and not them?

Perhaps. But this is requiring a change. I'm on the side of status quo. They are clamoring for change, not me. Either way, I'm not terribly worried about it...I just don't like unnecessary tinkering, especially for such an insignificant gain. I'd rather make inroads on bigger issues than make an insignificant change...

[meow]

Maybe you're the discontent citizen and not them?

Perhaps. But this is requiring a change. I'm on the side of status quo. They are clamoring for change, not me. Either way, I'm not terribly worried about it...I just don't like unnecessary tinkering, especially for such an insignificant gain. I'd rather make inroads on bigger issues than make an insignificant change...

Tinkering or evolving? Guy are the biggest, fastest, strongest and apparently least respectful in the history of the game. At some point, the league has to take some measures to protect guys where they can. My biggest concern is giving linesmen, guys that deal in black and white calls, a thought process and make a judgement call.

[mikey287]

Reduce equipment, gain respect, reduce serious injuries, improve game play. Make an impact at a tangible level. The game does not improve with changes to icing rules. That's why it's just tinkering. There's nothing wrong, it changes nothing or almost nothing, it's tinkering.

Standardized nets, forward passing, etc. that is evolution. Trapezoids and the like, that's tinkering. That's just playing with yourself. Nothing meaningful is accomplished. If you're gonna change things, change them the right way and get to the heart of the problem.

[Pavel Bure]

Reduce equipment, gain respect, reduce serious injuries, improve game play. Make an impact at a tangible level. The game does not improve with changes to icing rules. That's why it's just tinkering. There's nothing wrong, it changes nothing or almost nothing, it's tinkering.

Standardized nets, forward passing, etc. that is evolution. Trapezoids and the like, that's tinkering. That's just playing with yourself. Nothing meaningful is accomplished. If you're gonna change things, change them the right way and get to the heart of the problem.

I tend to agree with the suggested changes being tinkering. The biggest change should be calling the rules as they are written. The game would change for the better.

[Sam's Drunk Dog]

If they really wanted to make a difference they should completely disallow the goalies from playing the puck from the behind the net. It would allow teams to dump the puck in more effectively when forechecking.

[pressure=9Pa]

http://news.yahoo.com/nhl-general-managers-endorse-rules-135622849.html

Hybrid icing is a no-brainer. If it keeps one player from being hurt, it is worth it.
Mandatory visors with a grandfathering system is also a no-brainer. If it keeps one player from being hurt, it is worth it.
Video review on 4-minute high-sticks. Another no-brainer. It takes 15 seconds to get it right. I hope they take into consideration whether a player lifts an opponent's stick into his own face and negate the penalty.
Shallower nets aren't that big of a deal. Goalies rarely get beat on wrap arounds now, and I don't see a 4-inch shallower net really changing that too much. A few goals here and there, maybe, but nothing drastic. Give players a little bit more room out there is always a good thing.
One thing not mentioned in the article is goaltending equipment. Many of you know my stance on goaltending equipment, for obvious reasons. They want to cut down on goaltending equipment by roughly 10% and have the rules more tailored to the goaltender's specific body/build type.

Hybrid icing: Probably a , but I'd like to know the exact wording.

Visors:

Review for High Sticks: , although if they decided to potentially review all majors or 2+2 I could live with this. Same with misconduct. A lot of these calls are blown with regularity. If we had this, Cooke would have played all of game one.

Shallow nets: I guess

Goaltending equipment: for not doing anything.

And I still think that a penalty shot that isn't converted should then be a 2 min penalty. Also maybe change the criteria for a penalty shot from being clear from the blue line to clear from the dots or the blue line, depending on where the foul is committed.

[shoeshine boy]

And at the above comment: auto icing is auto icing. You could climb up the glass and sit in the stands, it's still icing.

not sure why you think that but no, it's not. if Letang clears the puck out but not super-hard the opposing team has to skate for it. they can't just stand there and watch it trickle over the far red line and have it be called an icing. that's why you see icings waived off even now. if the official determines that the player would've reached the puck before it got to the far red line if he had skated for it then he can waive off the icing. to call it "automatic icing" is really a misnomer. it's really no-touch icing and that is what is played at almost all levels of hockey.

[yubb]

Hybrid icing: Probably a , but I'd like to know the exact wording.

Visors:

Review for High Sticks: , although if they decided to potentially review all majors or 2+2 I could live with this. Same with misconduct. A lot of these calls are blown with regularity. If we had this, Cooke would have played all of game one.

Shallow nets: I guess

Goaltending equipment: for not doing anything.

And I still think that a penalty shot that isn't converted should then be a 2 min penalty. Also maybe change the criteria for a penalty shot from being clear from the blue line to clear from the dots or the blue line, depending on where the foul is committed.

Visors: Should be up to the player. Heck, wearing any piece of equipment should be up to the player.
Review for anything: It will make the game slow, like football. No likie.
Penalty Shot then Power Play: No way. You shouldn't get two cracks at scoring a goal like that. You should be able to choose whether you take the penalty shot, or the power play, though.

[Idoit40fans]

They could review at every signle whistle and it would never be as slow as football. 3 second play, 30 seconds, 3 second play, 30 seconds, 3 second play, 30 seconds. 7 second play, move up the chains for 15 seconds, 30 seconds, 3 second play commercial break.

[DelPen]

best thing to do is shrink the neutral zone, increase the other zones and it's automatic icing only behind your own blue line. Gain your blueline, which would now be 5 feet further up ice, and dump it down. In theory the Powerplays would also have more room to move and score more.

[Idoit40fans]

If there is thought to decrease the neutral zone again, just get rid of it.

[bh]

I hate hate hate the trapezoid. Wish they would get rid of that dumb thing. It serves no purpose at all.

[meow]

Defensemen that get run into the ditch hate it too

[pfim]

Hybrid icing is dumb. Either keep it the same or make it automatic. Officials need less discretion in their roles, not more.

there's discretion in automatic icing. i.e. is the d man skating for the puck? could the d man have played the puck?
I had an icing waved off in beer league because my teammate turned away from the puck to start skating back.

Can't say I've ever seen that in an IIHF sanctioned game? If the puck crosses the goal line, it's icing.