USA Hockey Still Pushing No Ice PK Rules

Back in 2010, the NCAA Ice Hockey Rules Committee attempted to pass a rule change that would’ve made icing the puck while on a penalty kill against the rules. The end result,  an icing infraction.

In keeping with the committee’s philosophy to encourage skill and create scoring chances, this change will enhance power-play opportunities,” said Forrest Karr, the committee chair and athletic director at Alaska-Fairbanks. “After lengthy discussion, the committee concluded that the previous rule inappropriately provided relief for a team that committed an infraction.”

Thankfully, this highly flawed rule proposal was strongly rejected by the Division I hockey coaches in 2010. Now, USA Hockey is pushing this horrific rule change. Starting this year, Bantam’s and under are stuck with this rule.

Moving forward, college hockey coaches and administrators need to be proactive and nip this in the bud. Fans need to monitor this, too. We can not allow this rule proposal to make its way back into the college ranks. Rule changes that are enacted in the lower ranks have a way of making their way to the older age groups.

The following rules will be applicable starting with the 2017-2018 playing season and will continue for the next four (4) years until the next time rule changes are permitted. I will highlight the major changes to the playing rules in this article and will issue a separate article for rules which were amended as a result of “language clarification”.  A summary of the changes to the playing rules is below, so here goes…. (USA Hockey)

At the Bantam (14U) and below age categories, a shorthanded team is no longer permitted to ice the puck without a consequence. The consequence is that such a situation will now result in an icing call by the officials and the resulting faceoff will occur in the offending team’s defensive zone similar to when both teams are at equal on-ice strength.

All faceoffs will occur at one of the nine dots on the ice.

Rule 601 now includes language for racial/ethnic slur to include any language that is “offensive, hateful or discriminatory in nature”.

Above are some of the other changes that have been adopted by USA hockey. Again, not allowing penalized teams to ice the puck while they’re on the penalty kill is a dumb rule. Please, leave the hockey the way it is. What next; not allowing players to block shots? Icing the puck allows teams to change lines and get fresh players on the ice.