Thanks to criticism leveled by the college hockey coaches, the NCAA ice hockey rules committee has rescinded the proposal that would have enforced icing rules at all times, including when a team is short-handed.
However, the committee recommended that the rule be mandatory for exhibition contests only. That will be in place for the next two seasons.
"The committee appreciates the membership feedback, and values the opinions of coaches and administrators," Forrest Karr, chair of the committee and athletics director at Alaska Fairbanks, said in a statement issued by the NCAA. "Responses indicate that while several coaches like the concept, there are concerns about the potential for unintended consequences. By using the rule in exhibition games over the next two seasons, the committee will have more concrete information."
In a College Hockey Notebook I wrote last month, Union coach Nate Leaman and RPI coach Seth Appert expressed their concern about the proposal.
"Most of the coaches feel it's a drastic change," Leaman said. "It’s something that puts our game different than every other game in the world. In my opinion, it's not a great change at all."
Appert was concerned about enacting a rule that hadn't been experimented with in exhibition play. but that fear is now alleviated. If it was approved, it could have become a dangerous time, and not just for the tired players. Fans may see more pucks being shot into the stands in order to get a stoppage in play.
"I know what we're going to do is instead of icing the puck on the penalty kill, we're going to work on shooting the puck over the glass because that's the only way you're going to get a change," Appert said. "Teams are still going to ice it, they're just going to sit at the faceoff dot and get a rest. The other thing is you're going to gun pucks into the stands because you can change your personnel.
"Between those two things, you're putting the players at risk, you're putting the fans at risk and what you're doing is not increasing offense, but slowing the game down because power plays are going to be full of whistles and stoppages of play."
