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Devs GM Lamoriello dislikes hybrid icing: ‘It’s another judgement call’

Lou Lamoriello

New Jersey Devils president, CEO and general manager Lou Lamoriello talks to the media after their NHL hockey game with the Tampa Bay Lightning had to be postponed due to lighting issues Friday, Jan. 8, 2010, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)

AP

Count New Jersey general manager Lou Lamoriello among those not on board with hybrid icing.

“I don’t like the idea that it’s another judgment call [for officials] when we’ve had something exact,” he told Tom Gulitti of NorthJersey.com. “I do know that we all have to look at safety, but I think that our players have learned how to turn and not turn and we can solve the whole problem by taking the trapezoid out and making it a lot easier.

“I just don’t like the idea that it’s another judgment call.”

Hybrid icing -- a mixture of touch and no-touch icing that’s reliant on the linesmen’s discretion -- will be implemented on a trial basis for the 2013-14 NHL preseason.

During this week’s GM meetings, a decision was made for the NHL and NHLPA to vote at the end of the exhibition campaign to see if they want to implement it for the regular season as well.

“There’s different types of the hybrid icing that have been used in different leagues, so we’re still going to hammer some of those details out,” NHLPA special assistant Mathieu Schneider said. “But essentially it’s meant to eliminate guys going full speed into the end boards.

“If it makes the game safer, it’s a great thing.”

Lamoriello said he and the Devils organization will keep a close eye on the preseason test period.

“The trial basis, I’m not a fan of the hybrid icing, but we’ll watch it,” he said. “I don’t’ think you turn your head on anything. We’ll just see how it goes.”