Proposed NCAA Rule Changes

The NCAA has some great ideas…but some of the proposed rule changes for Hockey aren’t among them.

Let us take a look at each of the five rule changes. These changes go to the Rules Oversight Committee in July for approval, and hopefully they are wise enough to can some of these.

* Enhancement to the contact to the head rule to include a minimum of a five-minute major penalty and either a game misconduct or game disqualification penalty

A minimum? I definitely think that hits to the head need to be taken more seriously, but this classifies someone whose elbow comes up at the last minute as an equal crime to cheap shot artists like “Erin” Marvin who are looking to take a player out by aiming for their head. The opponent should get a 5 minute PP in all cases? I think this is a judgment call, which is really scary in the WCHA where the refs barely know the rule book, let alone have the capacity to make a sound judgment between a 2 minute and 5 minute (w/ misconduct or disqualification) contact to the head penalty. This also penalizes taller players. John Mitchell was called for several bogus contact to the head penalties merely because he is taller and a guy like Garrett Roe is short, so a lot of hits between two contrasting body heights could put the elbow at head level when that player is obviously not trying to hit them in the head.

A minimum of five minutes will lead to a lot of PP time early in the season, and could also lead to less hitting in the games as players don’t want to get called for a five minute major and 10 minute misconduct because they grazed an opponent’s helmet. Aggressive play is part of hockey, and one of the things that make it great. I’m all for cleaning up cheap hits, but let’s be realistic in realizing not every contact to the head deserves a 5 minute major.

This is similar to checking from behind. There is a time to call a major and a time to just send a player to the box for 2 minutes. Emphasize the penalty and call it early and often next season instead.

* Enforcement of icing at all times, including while a team is shorthanded

Name the other league that uses this rule? So the NCAA wants to promote scoring and skill. How about an emphasis on consistently calling penalties like interference and holding early each season, and watch the talented players score more goals? This is an artificial attempt to increase scoring, while hurting the role of the PK. The PKers are already at a disadvantage, now they can’t send the puck all the way down the ice? And if they do, the attackers at full strength are further rewarded w/ an offensive zone face off after the icing (assuming that rule applies the same)? So the attackers are barely penalized for not being able to maintain possession of the puck while on the advantage (if they can't skate to the blue line)? DUMB.

There are many who agree w/ me. Brad Schlossman over at the Grand Forks Herald had a nice piece the other day about this. Earlier in April: WCHA coaches voted 12-0 against it. Atlantic Hockey coaches voted 12-0 against it. And Central Collegiate Hockey Association coaches voted 11-0 against it. That is 60% of college hockey right there, and I could only guess that Hockey East and ECAC wouldn’t be much different.

More from the article: “I think it’s just a crime,” Bemidji State coach Tom Serratore said. “I’ve been in college hockey for 18 years and I’ve never seen anything like this in my life. It was almost unanimous for the entire coaching body. How can the committee overturn the entire coaching body? I think it’s sad, the lack of respect that the committee had for the coaching body.

“We didn’t spend any time even talking about it because it was so radical. We just voted 12-0 and moved on.”

“It’s quite a shock,” [Dave]Hakstol said. “I haven’t said much, but I’m going to speak my mind on this. I’m upset about us not having a say in it as a Division I coaching body. On a national basis, we were very strongly against it, if not unanimously against it.”

The best are these comments from Fairbanks AD Forrest Carr:

“In keeping with the committee’s philosophy to encourage skill and create scoring chances, this will enhance power-play opportunities,” Karr said. “After lengthy discussion, the committee concluded that the previous rule inappropriately provided relief for a team that committed an infraction.”

Being down one man is not appropriate punishment for a penalty? How long has hockey been played? The current rule is good enough for the NHL and international competition, and has been for a LONG TIME. It is good enough for the NCAA too, and time for them to pull their head out of their ass and put this rule change in the garbage where it belongs.

* Modification of the no-touch icing rule to wave off icing if an official determines that an attacking player would reach the puck before a defending player

I like this idea. They use it in the USHL and it works pretty well, and gives the icing team a change to hustle to negate it, especially if the defense is being lazy getting back.

* Alteration of the delayed penalty rule to provide the offensive team with a power play even if a goal was scored during the delay

What other league uses this rule? Again when the NHL uses this, then maybe it is time for the NCAA to install it in the rule book.

* Changing which end each team defends during an overtime period (goaltenders would now switch ends after the third period)

Haven’t been to too many WCHA or NCAA arenas, but the one’s I have (Kohl Center, DECC & Magness) the student section is right behind the opposing goal in the 3rd period. Maybe in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t matter (aka won’t impact any games and some student sections are pathetic), but home ice advantage is nice when a crazy student section is yelling during OT in the opposing team’s end.

A few more Friday items . . . including a Tom Gilbert blog!

(I seem to keep adding things to this post, so if you've already read this post, you still might want to check it again.)

• Tom Gilbert is the latest NHL Badger to start a blog, posting his 1st entry early this morning.

• In his Men's Hockey Insider email today, Paul Capobianco has a bit of a travel update, including a link to a Badger Blog post:
  

  On most hockey road trips, the Badgers have a routine down to a science. Arrive on Thursday, practice at the home team’s rink, eat out at a restaurant. Friday, skate in the morning, nap, do school work or just plain rest in the afternoon before playing Friday night. Repeat on Saturday, though with some dry-land exercises in the morning instead of a morning skate on many occasions.
  
  This trip to Denver was a little different. Read about how it was different at the Badger Blog.

• Andy Baggot takes a look at the NCAA's plans for the NCAA tourney and the WCHA's response.
  


• The NCAA has released a video about this season's rule changes.


• THN has an article about Badger alum Mike Richter's political views and possible political future.


• Adam Burish was mic'd up for the Hawks home-opener v. Nashville on Monday. I'm a bit disappointed that he didn't tell anyone that he was going to knock their teeth in or anything like that, such as he did last year when mic'd up.


• I can't believe I missed this --in his 2 games last weekend, Brian Elliott stopped 66 of 68 shots. Pretty good SV%, hey? Both nights he was named 1st Star of the Game, and I think one of the nights he might have been named one of the 3 AHL Stars of the Night, but I can't find that now.


• ISS released their October 2009 Top 30 Prospects, and while he didn't make the top 30, future Badger Tyler Barnes is listed as on the rise:

  Tyler Barnes - Waterloo (USHL)
  Position: RW Height: 6.00 Weight: 165
  Draft sleeper. Barnes has impressed ISS scouts with both his play and skills. Coach Eaves (Wisconsin/WCHA) has to be pleased with his future recruit's play as well. Barnes is a skilled player who is also a great opportunist. If he is given the room, he will score. With continued development and attention to small details, he will continue to elevate is draft position.

Todd's take on the NCAA rule changes

Last week, Gandalf posted about the NCAA rule changes. Today, Todd Milewski shares his thoughts on this topic. Like usual, I'm pretty much in agreement with Todd's views, so I won't say anything further here.

NCAA Rule Changes

The NCAA Rules Committee has met and made some changes for the 2008/2009 season.

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.