Hybrid-icing rule gains momentum

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/03/2012 (5287 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BOCA RATON, Fla. — After years of hockey people railing about the dangers of touch icing, the NHL appears ready to make a rule change and adopt a safer version of the rule.

The league’s GMs have decided to take a further and more detailed look at hybrid icing with the intention of having the competition committee formulate a defined rule and take it to the board of governors this summer for a vote. The intention is to have the rule ready and adopted for next season.

The GMs have also asked the AHL to test a ringette line, a suggestion put forth years ago by Scotty Bowman.

The ringette or Bowman line will prevent players from passing the puck past the red-line until they cross the faceoff dots in their defensive zone.

“The reason for that is to encourage a forecheck,” said NHL senior vice-president of hockey operations Colin Campbell.

Campbell said the GMs constantly look at rules that will improve player safety and that was the final straw in pushing hybrid icing over the top.

“I think it’s safety. We’re looking at safety all the time. It’s that devastating injury you worry about,” said Campbell. “The game is in a pretty good place in terms of speed and competition but you always look for ways to improve safety.”

Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke said the competition committee will look to tweak the hybrid-icing rule used in NCAA and USHL action.

“Hybrid icing is not a perfect rule. They had a couple of problems with NCAA games this past weekend. So we’ve got to refine exactly how it’s called and implement it,” said Burke. “But I think it’s important. You guys know I’ve been pushing for this for a long time. (Touch icing) puts defencemen in our league at unnecessary risk on a play that really isn’t a scoring chance or anything.”

“So this is a real positive development,” added Burke. “Basically it’s a race to the faceoff dot. Instead of having a defenceman and a forward determine that race three feet from the (end) boards, we want them to determine that race 30 feet from the boards. So it would be at the faceoff dot. If I’m a defenceman and you chip the puck past me, I’ve just got to beat you to the faceoff dot and it’s an icing. It should take out a lot of collisions. It’s worked in the USHL. It’s worked in the NCAA. I think it’s long overdue, frankly.”

Burke says the NHL will look to eliminate quirks to improve hybrid icing.

“For one thing the optics of wrap-around icing. If someone really hammers it and it ends up on the other side of the net, and I beat you to the puck on the other side and the puck is on the far side, we want that to be a play-on puck,” said Burke. “If the goaltender comes out to play the puck they’re supposed to wave it off; they miss that sometimes because they’re focused on the race. So we have to work through some technical issues. But the overall impact of the rule should be positive.”

The Bowman line was preferred rather than putting the red-line back into effect.

“The discussion to put the red-line back in had no support. But I think we want to look at the ringette line in the American League if (AHL president) Dave Andrews is willing to do that,” said Burke. “Where we put a ringette line across the top of the faceoff circle and use that as a skill level where you have to advance the puck to the ringette line and then the rest of the ice opens up; then you can pass to the far blue (line). Otherwise you have to observe the red-line. We have too many young defencemen who are just hammering the puck up the wall.”

Andrews said he expects his governors to approve testing the Bowman line.

Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff said the GMs considered a change in player to player hand passes in the defensive zone but will instead ask the referees to call the rules as written but with stricter attention to closing the hand on the puck.

“We had some good discussions and some of he stuff gets tabled and some gets forwarded for further analysis or recommendation. When you look at some of these rules some of them are already in the rulebook or at least variations of the intention of the person that brought it forward,” said Cheveldayoff. “So you look at maybe enhancing or a stricter calling of those rules. The result for the hand pass rule is we want to pay closer attention to closing the hand on the puck. That will be looked at a little closer.”

Looking at the rules and how the game is played today is always a worthy exercise in Cheveldayoff’s opinion.

“The managers and teams are encouraged, if they see something or have a though or an idea on how something can be improved, to bring it forward,” he said. “Sometimes its more radical than others but it brings out discussion. At the end if you determine the game is fine the way it is, then it’s been a good process. It gets us all thinking critically about the game and where it is.”

gary.lawless@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @garylawless