JOHNS ISLAND, SC – Professional hockey in North America and particularly the NHL is in the middle of discussion around the rules governing icing. Discussion is centering around whether a major change is required to help reduce the number of serious injuries that occur each year in the high speed and high impact collisions that races for the puck during potential icings.
The argument about usually centers around two alternatives – automatic icing and touch icing – as both are being used at various levels of professional hockey. There is however, a third alternative, the hybrid icing rule, presently being used in the competitive Tier One United States Hockey League since 2007-08 season and beginning this season in the Southern Professional Hockey League. This rule combines portions of both no touch and automatic icing to reduce the potential for injuries while keeping competition for the puck in such situations alive.
Over the past years the list of players injured in trying to gain or retain puck possession in icing situations is long. Two recent examples are Patrice Bergeron of the Boston Bruins and Kurtis Foster of the Minnesota Wild, both injured last year. The list is much longer when you go back a few years including according to Don Cherry former Bruins coach and now hockey commentator. During a recent “Coaches Corner” segment on the icing rule discussion on a Hockey Night in Canada broadcast, Cherry listed examples of a number of NHL players hurt over the years in supporting a rule change.
As it is used in the NHL for example, the touch icing requires that the puck must be shot from a players defensive side of the red line, and cross the goal line and be touched first by a player of the team on offense before icing is called. If a defensive player touches the puck first icing is not called and play continues. This creates the excitement of the race for the puck but some perceive a high risk of injury as players’ race full speed towards the end boards to touch the puck ahead of their opponents.
The automatic icing rule calls for icing to be called once the puck is shot from a players’ defensive side of the red line and crosses the goal line without regard to who may be closest to the puck when it crosses the goal line. Thus, there is no incentive for either team to compete for the puck if icing is obvious and the automatic icing rule is being used.
NHL management, despite advocacy from the NHL Players Association, has resisted elimination of touch icing and the move to automatic icing because according to some, to do so would slow the game down.
The NHL may be at a standstill on the issue but down at the upper junior and single-A developmental level, officials are looking for a better solution.
The USHL’s Board of Governors, chaired by Sioux City Musketeers president and former Division I college defenseman Jim Kronschnabel, were looking to reduce the potential injuries caused by touch icing. While they started with the idea of automatic icing, after discussions and explanations, Kronschnabel and the other board members became attracted to the hybrid icing rule. They saw it as a way of keeping competition for the puck alive during potential icing situations, while reducing the potential for injury.
The idea of hybrid icing was originally conceived by Scott Brand, USA Hockey’s Coordinator of the organization’s Officiating Development Program. Brand, who assigns officials for several leagues, including the SPHL, was concerned that a move then being considered by the USHL to automatic icing would hinder the development of the linesmen in the development program who aspire to officiate at higher level pro hockey.
Under the hybrid icing rule, standard conditions must be present such as the teams must be equal strength at the time the puck is shot and the puck must have been shot from a player’s defensive side of the center red line and must completely cross the goal line without the defending team having an opportunity to play the puck. The goaltender must stay within his crease and not make an attempt or fake an attempt to play the puck during an icing.
Icing shall be considered complete once the front linesman determines who would have touched the puck first. This decision shall be made by the end-zone face off dot (an imaginary line across the ice connecting through the end-zone dots.) The only question to be asked in any icing situation is who would have reached the puck first. Once determined, the icing shall be waived or completed (whistle blown). The linesmen will not blow the whistle until a defending player reaches the face off dot. If it’s a tie or the linesmen is not clearly able to determine who would have of touched the puck first, icing shall be called (the tie will go to the defenseman).
Following a year of testing in the USHL, Brand recommended that the hybrid icing be tested by the SPHL. The SPHL Board of Governors agreed to do so during pre-season contests. Just before the start of the 2008-09 season, Commissioner Jim Combs of the Southern Professional Hockey League announced that the SPHL’s Board of Governors had approved the full adoption of hybrid icing for the 2008-08 season.
In the league’s official press release notating the regular season rule change, Combs said that “the SPHL’s icing rule eliminates the use of automatic icing and is intended to encourage competitive play while providing the skill development required by the touch icing rule used in higher level professional leagues for our players and officials. It is also intended to address perceived safety issues of the touch icing rule.”
The SPHL and USHL will no doubt annually evaluate the hybrid icing rule and could move to automatic icing in the future especially if the NHL moves in that direction. However, as the players and on-ice officials gain experience with and accept the hybrid rule and if the NHL remains at an impasse, the hybrid rule may offer a solid middle ground. If it emerges as an alternative way to reduce the potential for injury while keeping the flow of the game moving, it is well worth taking a look at all levels.
(Editors note: Phil Brand is the father of USA Hockey’s Scott Brand)
Contact the author at phil.brand@prohockeynews.com
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