WCHA coaches push for changes

Today was a great news day for college hockey, after a brief lull in the news. Brad has another great article that also covers the annual coaches meeting. The title of his article is pretty funny WCHA coaches push for change. Seems the league office is the one that is being resistant to change and doesn't want to change the STATUS QUO.

In the past year I have talked to a lot of fans from many different teams that are sick and tired of watching their star players being mugged, brutalized, raped and slashed up and down the ice. If you're a star player(s)and you have a chance to score goals in a league like the CCHA where the games are called more tighter or be constantly brutalized in a league like the WCHA; where are you going to want to play? It hasn't come down to this yet but it could if the league office doesn't get its head out of its fourth point of contact. The only reason I can see the WCHA commish not wanting to call the games like the NHL is that McCloud is afraid the have nots won't be able to keep up on the ice with the have mores. This is a possibility.

The time has come for the Bruce McCloud and his sorry band of officials to step into the 21st century, the fans should not have to accept mediocrity anymore. The days of bush league hockey is over.

During last weekend’s American Hockey Coaches Association meetings in Florida, coaches expressed their interest in a two-referee system and tighter calls when it comes to obstruction.

They hope that will lead to faster-paced, higher-scoring games. The end result of the talks won’t be known for another month, when the NCAA rules committee meets and decides on what changes to make for the upcoming season. But it’s clear where the WCHA stands on the issue.

“We were overwhelmingly in favor of two-and-two (two referees, two linesmen),” UND coach Dave Hakstol said. “It gives us a better opportunity to do some things. We had a lot of great discussions about trying to take the hooking, holding and obstruction out of the game. We talked about the NHL rule of not being able to change (lines) after icing the puck.

“You need a two-and-two system to be able to do that.”

WCHA commissioner Bruce McLeod said he clearly sensed a movement toward the NHL standard of calling penalties, although nobody wanted to duplicate the NHL standard.

College hockey has been stricter on checking from behind calls than the NHL, and coaches don’t want to see that change. But they would like to see stick-work eliminated.