Controversial icing rule shelved

I keep seeing various newspaper articles and blog posts that state, "NCAA coaches were unanimously opposed to the icing proposal." Fair enough Karr let’s put a name and a face to the coaches that are in favor of this ridiculous rule. I think that Forrest Karr was embarrassed and is looking to save some face. The 35-0 from three conferences (AHA, CCHA, WCHA) looks pretty unanimous to me and I have yet to see anyone quoted from the coaching ranks that’s in favor of this moronic rule. It’s time to put up or shut up, who are the coachs in favor of this icing rule.

College hockey coaches kept throwing punches, and the NCAA rules committee finally tapped out.

The NCAA announced Thursday that a proposed rules change, one that would forbid college hockey teams from legally icing the puck while shorthanded, has been pulled off the table.

The rules committee instead will allow for further experimentation with the change during exhibition games in 2010-11 and 2011-12.

If adopted, the rule would have altered a critical and long-standing tactic in killing penalties, and it could have made it almost impossible for shorthanded teams to change lines.

When the proposed change was moved forward in June, coaches across the country bashed the amendment. The University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Dean Blais, as well as most of his colleagues in the WCHA, came out strongly against the proposal.

Forrest Karr, outgoing chair of the rules committee and athletic director at the University of Alaska, said in a statement that the committee valued the feedback it received from coaches.

“Responses indicate that, while several coaches like the concept, there are concerns about the potential for unintended consequences,” Karr said in the release.

Karr has strongly refuted the assertion that NCAA coaches were unanimously opposed to the icing proposal.

But coaches certainly were not shy about going on the record with their outrage over the idea. WCHA coaches had voted 12-0 against the proposal when it was discussed during the league’s annual meetings in April.

“It’s ridiculous,” Blais told The World-Herald on June 25. “What more do you want? You’re already on the power play, but then the other team gets the puck — what are they supposed to do with it? It sounds like whoever was involved with that rule and pushed it through, I don’t think they understand the game very well.” [Mavericks Today]