MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — Change is inevitable over the course of time. Evolution, it seems, is the best way to guarantee survival and create an atmosphere conducive to growth.
At the recently concluded summer meetings of the Southern Professional Hockey League, the member teams voted to make some alterations to their operations – some will be very visible to fans while others won’t – but all were made with an eye looking forward to the league’s fifth season that starts in October.
The biggest item that was discussed at the meetings was whether or not to make it mandatory for players to wear protective visors. With the risk of serious eye and facial injuries at a high level, not to mention the fact that it would help with the cost of insurance, everyone was in favor of the move.
“Our players are our assets. We need to protect them from themselves sometimes and do the best thing for them,” Columbus Cottonmouths’ coach and general manager Jerome Bechard said. “Just talking with all the other leagues that have put in visors over the last couple of years, their injuries went down from five to ten a year to almost none. We think it was a pretty important deal.”
According to SPHL Commissioner Jim Combs, the move to the visors will also be a benefit for players who get the opportunity to play in higher leagues where the protective gear has been mandatory for multiple seasons.
“All of the other North American leagues have made visors mandatory,” he said. “If our players are going to move up, they need to be prepared (to wear a visor).”
The other big change that fans will notice is a change in the playoff format. Each of the last two seasons, six teams (out of seven) made the post season with the first and sixth place teams playing a best-of-five series with the winner going straight to the finals. While that was going on, the second through fifth place squads paired up for two best-of-three quarterfinal series with the winners meeting to decide who would be the second team in the finals.
This year, only the top four teams out of six will qualify for the playoffs. The top seed and the fourth seed will meet while the second and third place teams will battle in two best-of-five semifinal series. The winners will then meet in a best-of-seven series to decide the league championship.
Other options were put on the table for discussion but according to Combs, logic and economics once again combined to steer the decision-making process.
“We talked about having the fourth and fifth place teams being involved in a play-in game (somewhat similar to the two single-game elimination contests used during the 2005 playoffs) which would have to be played during the week,” he said. “That would have been a huge expense to undertake for the teams involved.”
For Bechard, who is also the chairman of the league’s Board of Governors, the change in format has the potential to make the race for those four spots as exciting as last season when playoff positions were not finalized until the final night of the regular season.
“I would suspect that we’re going to have a battle. The teams will be close. The parity will be the same as it was last year,” he said. “You could have a three-way battle for fourth place like we had a three-way battle for sixth place. We’re looking to have the same thing happen (this season).”
Despite losing the Jacksonville Barracudas, the league decided to maintain its previously announced increase to a 60-game schedule. Combs indicated that there was discussion about dropping the number but that the choice was made to stay where they are.
“Certainly there was talk but with the sales and marketing plans already underway, it was decided that we should stay with 60 games,” he said.
Off the ice, changes were made to the practice of short-term or “tryout” contracts. In the past, teams were allowed the use of five five-game contracts to either bring in new players or replace injured ones. Starting this season, each team will have ten three-game contracts to utilize.
“A lot of owners felt that they didn’t need five games to be able to tell if a guy was going to make their team,” Combs said.
From a coaching viewpoint, Bechard was in total agreement with the move.
“I think it gives you a little bit more leeway managing those tryouts whether you’re using them as a legitimate tryout or as a replacement player,” Bechard said. “If it’s a legitimate tryout and you’re bringing in a kid to see what he can do, you know after one game whether he’s going to help your hockey team out. It kind of alleviates the short term injuries, the nagging things that might keep you out a week or possibly two. You can use one three-game tryout and have a guy sit for a week to rest.”
Training camps for year five will officially begin on October 12, 2008, approximately twelve days before the regular season opens.
Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com
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