NHL Rules Changes
As part of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the league, owners, and players have all agreed to enact some rule changes. It sounds basically like none of the three parties agrees that the rule changes are all great or what they want, but that the final changes don’t tick off any particular party to a point of protest.
Some of the major rule changes and my thoughts follow.
Basically, they are moving the goal closer to the boards, the offensive areas have increased in size by 4 feet, and a trapezoid has been added behind the goal, which is to restrict the goalie’s movement behind the crease.
Offsides and two-line pass conditions are relaxed, to cut down on stoppages.
Can’t make a line change prior to the faceoff when you ice the puck, removing that strategy entirely.
If you start a fight in the last 5 minutes of the game, you get a suspension, and your coach gets fined $10,000. I’d hate to be the first player in the league to do that.
Goalie equipment reduced in all directions by 1”, or 11% total surface area. If you’ve even watched one game of hockey, you can appreciate how often pucks are stopped by a deflection from the edges of pads, and not a dead center block.
No more ties. Shootout rules are now in place for regular season games to make sure no game ends in a draw. I’m guessing that one group, either the league, owners, or players have been having fun with this oft-added feature of hockey video games, where it’s been an option for a long time.
Combined with some of the other rules you can see in the link that limits stoppages and encourages a more pressing offense, I forsee higher scores and very tired players. I guess time will tell whether or not the changes are good. I’m reluctant to accept them, in all honesty, especially the ones that are made specifically to lead to higher scores and the very idea of eliminating ties. Hockey was one of the last sports where the game could be ended in a sportsmanlike way without declaring a “winner”.
Posted Monday July 25, 2005 in Hockey Schmockey by Derek Jones
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