The NHL conducted their weekly March meetings this week and the big news to surface comes from a rule change to the current icing format. The proposal was approved by the leagues 30 general managers; however the GMs still have to draft a definition of the rule change to eliminate any grey areas.
"It's going to go forward as a recommendation, but there is some cleaning up as to
how exactly it is going to work and what directives we're going to give," Montreal
Canadiens General Manager Pierre Gauthier said.
The New Rule States: An icing play would be negated under the change if an attacking forward outraces the opposing team’s defenseman to an imaginary line across the defensive-zone faceoff dots while chasing a puck shot down ice from behind the center red line.
Current Rule: Under the current icing rule, a forward must beat a defenseman to the puck after it crosses the goal line to negate an icing call.
Personally, I believe this is a necessary rule change because of the speed in today's game and the vulnerability and risk of injury is not worth a player's health or career. This rule will ultimately help reduce or eliminate players being smashed into the end boards, which usually result in concussions. As we can clearly see, player safety is continually a hot topic during the GM meetings because of the amount of players suffering from concussions and the awareness that continues to spread about their impact on players lives.
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