The highlights:
- 2 Referees/2 Linesmen next season
- more emphasis on puck carrier protection (obstruction) and faceoff protocol
- No Shootout at the NCAA level, though individual conferences can use them
- NHL style Icing, where the icing team cannot change on-ice personnel
My only issue w/ the 2 ref/2 linesmen system was it seemed that one extra guy on the ice got in the way. Having 16 people on the ice instead of 15 seemed to make a difference, but that was in limited viewing during early WCHA play, it seems to work pretty well in the NHL. Speaking of the WCHA, does it really matter if there are 2 refs on the ice? There could be 12 and they still will blow an unusually large amount of calls league wide again this season. The WCHA is by far the best collegiate conference in the country, someday soon hopefully we get officials (both on ice and league administrators) who live up to that billing.
Personally, I like the tie game. In the NHL I don't like that some games hand out 3 points and some games only 2. If you were to look up the standings for the past season, only about 6 NHL teams had losing records because of SO and OT loses in the "old" tie column. Shootouts are exciting, I enjoyed one down in Rockford in March, and though the Badgers lost, the shootout against Colgate had the Kohl Center on its feet. Still, a hard fought battle that draws to a tie is nothing to look down upon, and I hope the WCHA continues w/ their current format.
Lastly, I like this NHL style icing rule. I thought the Badgers iced the puck way more than they had to last season, and now it won't be just a quick toss down the ice w/ the only penalty being a faceoff in your own end. This should cause players to increase their situational awareness, which should make them better players in general, IMO.
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