Ugly stick swinging incident in the OHL

Wow! This was an ugly incident that took place in the OHL last night. How long of a suspension do you think the London Knights Ryan Rupert gets for his slash on Nick Cousins? s/t Neate Sager

Ryan Pyette, The London Free Press --- As time expired on the 'Hounds' 4-3 victory over the Canadian Hockey League's top-ranked team before 9,046 Friday night at the John Labatt Centre, Sault Ste. Marie's pesky forward Nick Cousins taunted the Knights, earning a retaliatory slash from Ryan Rupert.

That triggered a series of end-of-game fights, serious bad blood and sets the stage for the Knights' final two regular season games against the 'Hounds - both in January in Sault Ste. Marie.

Cousins received a misconduct for inciting and Rupert received a major penalty for his slash.

There are suspensions in store for the multiple scraps. Both teams stayed on the ice surface an additional five minutes after the final buzzer as a full-scale brawl threatened to break out.

2011-12 NHL rule changes

Brendan Shanahan and of the NHL and Mathieu Schneider of the NHLPA explain the rule changes for the 2011-12 season. The rule that one that everyone is concerned about is rule 48, illegal hits to the head. Gone are the words, lateral and blindside, also, the head can not be target or a principle point of contact. If a player puts themselves in a vulnerable position that will be taken into consideration as well. There is also some flexibility to call a 2 minute penalty instead of a 5 minute major.

Related articles

• Study: 1 in 10 NHL concussions caused by fights (crawlnet.wordpress.com)
• Study: 1 in 10 NHL concussions caused by fights (espn.go.com)
• NHL Experiments With New Rules at Offseason Camp (nytimes.com)

RDO camp will allow NHL to experiment with rules

Image via WikipediaNext week the NHL School will have another Research, Development and Orientation Camp so they can test potential rule changes, unfortunately there will be many of the same crappy rules the NCAA Division I ice hockey committee tried to ram down our throats last summer.

A few of the things I have noticed is that NHL wants to experiment with during their RDO camp; the NHL in their infinite wisdom wants to try the horrible No icing permitted while shorthanded, this is that rule where a team that is on penalty kill can’t ice the puck. The genius that came up with this rule should be rebuked and publicly scorned and the NHL should not enact this rule. The NHL also wants to go to a no-touch icing which is an awesome idea, because it would cut down on the amount of injuries that are suffered when two players rush to the end boards to contest an icing.

On the flip side, the NHL wants to experiment with the Hybrid icing rule as well. As college hockey fans saw last season there appeared to be no consistency in how that rule was called, you can only hope that the NHL officials can get that rule right if they decided to use it. Link to the Story on NHL.COM

Some of the rules that are being proposed

• No-touch icing
• No line change for team committing an offside
• Faceoff variations (penalty line for center committing an infraction; all faceoffs in circles; same linesman drops puck for all faceoffs)
• No icing permitted while shorthanded
• Verification line (additional line behind the goal line)
• Overtime variation (four minutes of 4-on-4 followed by three minutes of 3-on-3)
• Shootout variation (5-man shootout precedes sudden-death format)
• Shallow-back nets
• After offside, faceoff goes back to offending team's end
• Faceoff variations (both centers must come set on whistle; all faceoffs in circles; same linesman drops puck for all face-offs)
• Delayed penalty variation (offending team must exit zone in possession of puck to stop play)
• Changes only permitted on-the-fly (except after goals and upon manpower changes)
• Remove trapezoid
• Allow hand passes in all zones
• Overtime variation (switch ends)
• Shootout variation (5-man shootout with repeat players if tied after 5 shooters)
• Thin-netting nets
• 'Hybrid' icing
• Offside variation (offending team can't change and faceoff in its end zone)
• Faceoff variations (player encroaching can't replace thrown-out center, all faceoffs in circles; same linesman drops puck for all faceoffs)
• All penalties to be served in their entirety
• Strict enforcement of goaltenders covering puck outside crease (rule 63.2)
• Bear-hug rule
• Overtime variation (switch ends for four minutes of 4-on-4, followed by three minutes of 3-on-3)
• Shootout variation (3-man shoot out with repeat shooters if tied after 3 shooters)

Related articles

• NHL To Test Radical Rule Changes At Second Annual Research Camp (sbnation.com)
• What they'll be testing out at this summer's NHL Research & Development Camp (prohockeytalk.nbcsports.com)
• NHL rule changes (aol.sportingnews.com)

Board of Governors approves changes to two rules

Associated Press

There were two changes to the NHL  rule book;  Rule 48 which covers hits to the head and Rule 41 which covers the penalty for boarding. Some in the past have complained that Rule 48 is too vague and confusing. Now the rule has been changed, to take away the confusion and vagueness, now it doesn't matter hat direction a player comes from to hit an opposition player in the head. On the boarding rule tweak; it now doesn't matter if you check or push a defenseless player into the boards.

Dan Rosen - NHL.com Senior Writer   ---- The NHL's Board of Governors on Tuesday approved changes to the wording of Rule 48 that were initially passed by the League's general managers and then the Competition Committee at meetings in Boston during the Stanley Cup Final.

Rule 48 previously provided the on-ice officials with the ability to call a major penalty for any targeted head hit from the lateral or blind side, but the re-written rule no longer includes the words lateral or blind side, and the major penalty provision has been replaced by the minor penalty provision.

"Now, the confusion some of the players have expressed in the past as to what direction they're approaching a player, what direction a player is facing, east, west, north, south, that has all been taken out," said Brendan Shanahan, NHL Senior V.P. of Player Safety and Hockey Operations. "Anywhere on the ice, coming from any direction, you target the head and make it a principle point of contact, you'll be subject to a two-minute penalty on the ice for Rule 48. You'll also be -- as with all two-minute penalties or non-calls -- subject to supplementary discipline."

In addition, Rule 41, which covers boarding, was also changed to read, "A boarding penalty shall be imposed on any player who checks or pushes a defenseless opponent in such a manner that causes the opponent to hit or impact the boards violently or dangerously."

The words "pushes" and "defenseless" were previously not included in the definition of the boarding rule. Defenseless replaced the word vulnerable.

"What we did is we took the onus off the violence of the hit itself and added the word 'push' in there," Shanahan said. "It really has more to do with the violence in the collision with the boards. We don't necessarily think it has to be a violent hit to cause a violent crash, so we broadened the rule by putting in the word 'push.' "

Related articles

• NHL Competition Committee Approves Expansion Of Rule 48 (sbnation.com)
• NHL's competition committee to recommend changes to Rule 48 (theglobeandmail.com)
• NHL's competition committee to recommend changes to head hitting rule (thehockeynews.com)
• Winnipeg NHL approval vote on tap in New York (cbc.ca)