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CHANGE CHECKING RULES TO IMPROVE THE GAME
Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2010 12:37 pm
by The Bone
CHANGE CHECKING RULES TO IMPROVE THE GAME:
How about revising the rules to eliminate the head hunting and bone crushing checks. Maybe reduce injuries - Keep kids on the ice instead of in casts and on the bench..........
Educate/reeducate players and coaches to understand that checking is an excellent tactic to separate a player from the puck
WITHOUT the checker taking themselves out of the play.
Revising the rules combined with enforcement of those rules, has worked to greatly reduce "clutch and grab play". Overly aggressive checking could be controlled with a similar strategy.
From another topic that got me thinking:
Like I said before, I don't have a problem with checking, per se. My issue with with the head hunting and running players into the boards.
If kids can be taught to cleanly check a player and use more discretion about when to hit, I'm OK with it. What I mean by "more discretion", is that I see many hits that aren't necessary. You don't need to destroy a kid on the open ice just because he has his head down. You can knock him off the puck without knocking his head off.
We need to quit glorifying the "bone crushing" checks and teach the players to have a little more respect for each other on the ice. I hear some people pine for the "good 'ol days" when players were "tougher"....the problem with that is back in the good ol' days, players had more respect for each other than they do now. You didn't see NEARLY has many head shots and boarding situations.
Maybe it's because the players have better protective gear, we feel as though the physicality can be ramped up. This is wrong, concussions are on the rise....the best helmet in the world won't competely prevent head injuries.
Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2010 12:49 pm
by greybeard58
All of the rules needed are already in place,it is the enforcement(interpretation) that is needed to be stepped up.
Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2010 1:07 pm
by PanthersIn2011
I agree with the spirit of what you are saying.
But I think the rules are already mostly in place. What is needed is a top-to-bottom emphasis on calling contact to the head, elbowing and boarding. As you suggested, this needs to start from USAH/MH. Then refs need to call it. And coaches need to support the refs. And coaches also need to continue to educate players on how to give and take a check and how to avoid putting themselves in vulnerable positions.
Actually, there is one rule change that I would personally like to see: make checking from behind a game ejection.
I think this is a far better approach to addressing injury in the game than eliminating checking at the PW level.
Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2010 10:22 pm
by trippedovertheblueline
[quote="PanthersIn2011"
Actually, there is one rule change that I would personally like to see: make checking from behind a game ejection.
I think this is a far better approach to addressing injury in the game than eliminating checking at the PW level.[/quote]
The rules allow a referee to toss a kid out with what they interpret a game misconduct check from behind. But what about the frequent check from behind that maybe wasn't? Do you still say toss the kid? In Canada they have been called out for teaching turn and take the hit. Thus the opponent check from behind, 10 & 2.
Posted: Sat Aug 14, 2010 4:14 am
by PWD10
greybeard58 wrote:All of the rules needed are already in place,it is the enforcement(interpretation) that is needed to be stepped up.
Agree. We had a grand total of one checking injury on a single player all year, at the highest level of PW and that was a legitimate check. Only had one game where there was a checking from behind and even that was kind of more incidental then the obvious trying to hurt someone and we still managed to get the Fair Play point from that game.
The only thing we saw that really made a dent in the game were the slapshots. Saw lots and lots of kids getting dropped on them and leaving the game. I want to say at least 7 or 8 stoppages and removals from my foggy distant memory.
I would like to see that crap of slamming the offensive player in front of the goalie from the backside on a power play get called more often. How we don't lose more players there still kind of amazes me.
Posted: Sat Aug 14, 2010 11:47 am
by Bronc
PWD10 wrote:greybeard58 wrote:All of the rules needed are already in place,it is the enforcement(interpretation) that is needed to be stepped up.
Agree. We had a grand total of one checking injury on a single player all year, at the highest level of PW and that was a legitimate check. Only had one game where there was a checking from behind and even that was kind of more incidental then the obvious trying to hurt someone and we still managed to get the Fair Play point from that game.
The only thing we saw that really made a dent in the game were the slapshots. Saw lots and lots of kids getting dropped on them and leaving the game. I want to say at least 7 or 8 stoppages and removals from my foggy distant memory.
I would like to see that crap of slamming the offensive player in front of the goalie from the backside on a power play get called more often. How we don't lose more players there still kind of amazes me.
Posted: Sat Aug 14, 2010 1:25 pm
by blindref
greybeard58 wrote:All of the rules needed are already in place,it is the enforcement(interpretation) that is needed to be stepped up.
Head contact has been THE MAIN emphasis with USA hockey
It is being enforced
Coaches need to spend more time on how to check correctly and less time on breakouts.
you almost never see teams working on it after the first two weeks of the year
That's why you still see football type hits late in the season
and it's the referees fault your team missed their fairplay point.
Posted: Sat Aug 14, 2010 1:33 pm
by DumpandChase1
Blindref I have to disagree with you. Coaches do spend time on this and try to teach their players not to make head contact. I understand USA hockey has put the emphasis on this and what the ususally means is that the refs call that much more than they normaly would. Just like they did a few years ago when interferance was the main point. I love when the refs calls a player for head contact when his shoulder hits the other players head because he is a foot taller then the other kid. We have a peanalty already in the book for head contact, it is called elbowing.
Posted: Sat Aug 14, 2010 10:30 pm
by goldy313
Sometimes putting rules in under the guise to protect the player do far more harm than good.
For years hitting in the head was legal in high school hockey, that changed within the last 5. The impetus for protecting the player being checked was taken away from the kid being hit and put on the kid doing the checking. The same was done with checking from behind, a call that was non existant 25 years ago yet there were fewer head and spinal cord injuries then there have been since the rules were changed. Watching kids duck their heads to take a check has become common place in high school hockey, it has gotten so bad you know frequently see kids drop to a knee near the boards. Why? Because they are rewarded with drawing a penalty.
It starts with coaching at the smallest levels, watch how many termites play with their heads down, then notice how that ratio doesn't change much between there and high school. Watch 5 year old figure skaters and see how their heads are up. It's not rocket science, putting a helmet on a kid at an age where the heaviest part of his body is his head and then have him stick handle around 1 foot tall cones where do think these habits come from? Sure, blame the checker for making a hit. As was said earlier we have calls for this but now we punish a pefectly good hit because some kid can't skate with the puck with his head up.
I'm all for protecting people but there has to be a point where Darwinism comes into play as well.