The basic rules in hockey remain the same, shoot the puck in the net enough times and you will win the game. However, the rules that surround this simple one have changed dramatically over the years, many of them with negative consequences. For instance:
The delayed offside rule was put into place to speed up the games, keep the action going. It has done almost the opposite. It has taken much of the skill out of the game by reducing it to a dump and chase mentality. You don’t see the great moves at the blue line as a forward tries to maneuver around the defense, or at least not nearly as much as you used to see it. As the forwards approach, most defensemen are already turning to chase the puck behind their net. If anything, it has gotten the defensemen to be quite good at turning circles in their own end. Trebil is a good case in point, although he has more problems just skating. (not so subtle shot at the Gopher defensemen) It has certainly contributed to the demise of the pro game by fostering the ever present center ice trap, which in turn has made the game into a boring defensive battle. This rule will be changed in the Pro’s within the next few years and should be in college as soon as possible.
The checking from behind rule was instituted to save players from getting seriously injured along the boards. True, this does happen, and it is unfortunate. However, I believe there been more incidents since this rule has come into being. To some degree, the player in the corner has to take some responsibility for his place on the ice. The calls in the WCHA this year have been way too frequent and many of them, VERY marginal calls. More and more you are seeing the players take advantage of this rule by turning away from a check in order to try and get the call, many times resulting in a 5 minute major and game disqualification.
The Wayne Gretzky rule was implemented in the pro’s many years ago to keep the teams at even strength as much as possible. As the story goes, Edmonton was too good on the Power Plays and would dominate any instance in which they have 4 on 4 or 3 on 3 situations. Thus, the league put in place the rule of coincidental minor penalties where neither team would lose a player on the ice. This rule has come and gone in both college and the pro’s to the extent that nobody truly understands when teams will skate with less than 5 men up front. It was much more fun watching the 3 on 3 hockey, you just don’t see this enough anymore.
My all time favorite, the FaceMask rule. Look what this has done to the game. It was made to make the game safer, yet has done just the opposite. The sticks have come up higher and higher each year and more players are getting hurt with sticks around the neck than ever before. You just didn’t have that many injuries before this and now look what has happened. Players are much more apt to pull this type of hooking, elbowing and such because they don’t think the players can get hurt. Not the case. In many instances, the games have degraded into a slashing match.
Our brand new Charging rule is a superb example of stupidity. They have taken away the 3 step rule and made it a total judgement call by the ref as to intent to injure. These refs have enough problems calling the penalties that actual occur, much less making another judgment call on what the player was thinking when he made the check. Hey guys, this is a physical sport! This one has got to get reversed before they aren’t allowed to check at all!
It’s easy to say we should go back to the way things were, in my case, that would be the 1970’s. As we all know, you can’t. However, maybe we should look more closely at the past to see our current mistakes. I do long for the Good Old Days!
Chic.
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