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Day 1 of NHL research and development camp sees hits and misses with rules

2010 NHL Research, Development and Orientation Camp

<> on August 18, 2010 in Toronto, Canada.

Matthew Manor

Day one of the NHL’s Research and Development Camp has come and gone now and folks are sounding off about just what it was they were seeing, innovation-wise, on the ice in Toronto. With such a huge list of things to run through in the two days of the camp, times figure to be busy and intriguing.

With a host of NHL authority figures and media on to watch the proceedings, curiosity as to how these potential rule changes could play out in reality is sky high. Chris Johnston of The Canadian Press had these observations, including how warmly received the test run for “hybrid” icing went.

The proposed change gives linesmen the ability to make a ruling on whether a play will be called icing based on which player reaches the faceoff dot first -- rather than who is first to touch the puck.

“Anything we can do with icing to protect our players we should do,” Ottawa Senators GM Bryan Murray said Wednesday. “If the linesman can make the call earlier, then obviously it will benefit the good players in our league.”

Ken Hitchcock is coaching one of the teams participating in the camp and believes the hybrid icing rule belongs in the NHL.

“It’s a competitive and safe way of playing,” said Hitchcock. “You would almost completely eliminate those big injuries that come and yet you’re still creating the competition for (the puck). ... For me, it’s a real good idea.

“There’s no worse feeling than what happened to a guy like Kurtis Foster.”


Kurtis Foster, then of the Minnesota Wild, infamously had his leg broken grotesquely in pursuit of a puck with Torrey Mitchell of the Sharks on a potential icing call. Since then, the league has instituted penalties for hitting players into the boards on icing calls to help player safety.
2010 NHL Research, Development and Orientation Camp

<> on August 18, 2010 in Toronto, Canada.

Matthew Manor

What “hybrid” icing would do is institute a brand of no-touch icing where if the defending player beats the opponent to the face-off circle chasing a puck down for icing, it would be called immediately without touching up the puck. If the opponent beats the defending team to the puck, icing is waived off and play continues.

One intriguing thing tested out was altering the face-off circles in the attack zones, making it so there was only one circle in the zone and it would be set right in the slot in front of the net. The thinking of doing that there is that it would make teams think twice about freezing the puck in their own end. It also has the crazy effect of making the attack zone look like the portrait of a Cyclops. Panthers GM Dale Tallon was not a fan of this innovation.

“You lose the intensity and the strength,” said Florida Panthers GM
Dale Tallon. “There’s got to be more to it than just finesse. Guys are
going to cheat on that anyway.

“I just like the way it is.”


One thing that was played around with a bit today were different variances of how to play in overtime. David Shoalts of the Globe and Mail divulges that these were not quite as big a hit with coaches.

Also drawing some praise was a twist on the NHL’s regular-season overtime. The session started with three minutes of four-on-four play, followed by three minutes of three-on-three and then three minutes of two-on-two. There was more offence created in the three-on-three session but the two-on-two looked gimmicky. [Sens GM Bryan] Murray agreed.

However, [Ken] Hitchcock, who is even more renowned for his love of defensive hockey than Murray, disagreed. He thinks NHL coaches have managed to slow down regular-season overtime because they would rather take their chances in the shootout.

“Too many times in our league we have ways of making sure we keep four-on-four a non-scoring event so we get into a shootout,” Hitchcock said. “Two-on-two was a little bit gimmicky but when it went three-on-three it was in the net. In the NHL in overtime three-on three, I don’t think you would get to many shootouts. It would be in somebody’s net for sure.”


Whether you enjoy the shootout is a matter of personal taste, of course, but having seasons decided on what amounts to be a practice ritual and pastime during the All-Star Game skills competition is a bit maddening. As for what NHL Vice President of Hockey and Business Development and man in charge of the two-day event, Brendan Shanahan thought about the first day of action, here’s a video with Shanny discussing how he saw things.
http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/embed.swf

Day two of the camp proves to get more interesting on its own as we’ll see the controversial rule enacting icing on the penalty kill tested out among other things. We’ll have more reactions and video tomorrow from day two of the camp.

(Photos: Matthew Manor - Getty Images)