The NHL has sent a video to all teams regarding new rule changes for this season.
NHL Senior Vice President of Player Safety and Hockey Operations Brendan Shanahan and NHLPA Special Advisor Mathieu Schneider took part in a video. It outlines rules on checks to the head and boarding. These are the rule changes as explained on nhl.com.
Rule 48 -- Illegal checks to the head
The NHL changed Rule 48 to render illegal all hits where the head is targeted in an intentional and/or reckless way and is the principal point of contact. A minor penalty will be assessed for infractions of this rule and the possibility of supplementary discipline exists.
The referee can use his judgment to determine if the player put himself in a vulnerable position immediately prior to or simultaneous with being hit, as well as if the contact with the head on an otherwise legal body check was avoidable.
Rule 48 previously provided on-ice officials with the ability to call a major penalty for any targeted head hit from the lateral or blind side, but the re-written rule no longer includes the words lateral or blind side, and the major-penalty provision has been replaced by the minor-penalty provision.
In the Shanahan/Schneider video, four hits were shown as evidence of what won't be allowed under the new guidelines of Rule 48. In each hit, Shanahan and Schneider detailed how the head was targeted and the principal point of contact.
They also showed and analyzed four hits that are considered legal under Rule 48 and explained the reasons behind those, as well. They mostly were clean body checks in which the head was touched but not targeted or the principal point of contact.
"Now, the confusion some of the players have expressed in the past as to what direction they're approaching a player, what direction a player is facing, east, west, north, south, that has all been taken out," Shanahan said. "Anywhere on the ice, coming from any direction, you target the head and make it a principal point of contact, you'll be subject to a two-minute penalty. You'll also be -- as with all two-minute penalties or non-calls -- subject to supplementary discipline."
Rule 41 -- Boarding
The boarding rule was amended in several ways in order to put the focus on the violent -- and possibly dangerous -- contact with the boards rather than the actual point of contact.
This season, a boarding penalty will be assessed to a player who checks or pushes a defenseless player in a manner that causes the player to have a potentially violent and/or dangerous impact with the boards. The word "pushes" was added to the rule and "defenseless" replaced the word "vulnerable."
The onus now is going to be on the player applying the check to ensure his opponent is not in a defenseless position. If he is, the player applying the hit must avoid or, at the very least, minimize the contact.
However, as is the case with Rule 48, the referee will be able to use his judgment to determine if the player getting hit put himself in a vulnerable position immediately prior to or simultaneous with being hit, or if the check was unavoidable and contact was at the very least minimized.
In the video, Shanahan and Schneider showed and analyzed three plays that will be called as boarding under the new guidelines of Rule 41. They also went through three clips of plays that would not be considered boarding because the player delivering the hit minimized his contact after committing to the check or the players being hit put themselves in vulnerable positions immediately prior to or simultaneous with the hit.
"What we did is we took the onus off the violence of the hit itself and added the word 'push' in there," Shanahan said. "It really has more to do with the violence in the collision with the boards. We don't necessarily think it has to be a violent hit to cause a violent crash, so we broadened the rule by putting in the word 'push.'"
Here is the video explaining everything. Hopefully, it will play without issue.
If the video doesn't play, you can try this link.
You may see some of those calls/no calls as the Jets take to the ice today for their preseason games. The atmosphere is just electric around the arena.
You can read all about the excitement here in an article that quotes Coach Noel and Blake Wheeler.
Dan Rosen also reports on the realignment talks that are taking place in the next Board of Governors' meeting.
Re-alignment for the 2012-13 NHL season is on the agenda for Tuesday's Board of Governors' meeting here in Manhattan. It will likely be discussed at length, but no final decisions are expected.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said at his State of the League address prior to Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final that the Winnipeg Jets would play only one season in the Southeast Division before moving into a more geographically logical division. That, of course, means re-alignment is necessary. Moving the Jets, though, could facilitate a larger scale re-alignment and a more balanced schedule.
It's possible that the Board of Governors will discuss changing the structure of the conferences by creating four divisions of seven or eight teams. Columbus, Nashville and Detroit have reportedly expressed an interest in moving to the Eastern Conference.
"We have a number of clubs that would like to address specific issues on realignment," Bettman said in June. "All those clubs need an opportunity to be heard. That's a process we'll go through the first half of next season, looking at the issues that clubs want to raise, looking at various possibilities, and trying to figure out what will make the most sense moving forward.
"If I had to guess anything, and this is purely speculation, as much as I hate to do that, because ultimately it's a Board decision, I think we'll wind up moving towards a slightly more balanced schedule to accommodate the variety of issues I've heard so far from the clubs."
Currently, the teams play 6 games against divisional opponents, 4 games against conference opponents, and 15 games against opponents in the other conference (12 single games and 3 teams twice).
Because of the quickness of the Thrashers going to Winnipeg, the League decided to keep formats and divisions the way they were in the 2010-2011 season. It would have been too difficult to realign everything in such a short time so Winnipeg kept all the traits of the Atlanta club and remained in the same division, the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference.
For six of the Canadian teams (not including Winnipeg), the extra three inter-conference games are always against the three Canadian teams in the other conference. This ensures that all Canadian teams play home and away against their Canadian non-conference opponents each season, and each of the non-conference U.S. teams once per year. With the Winnipeg Jets there are now 7 Canadian teams and the NHL has yet to determine how this will affect the schedule next season. That will probably happen during the BOG meeting.
For the 24 American teams (including Winnipeg), the extra three games are rotated each season between the twelve non-conference U.S. opponents in a way designed to ensure each U.S. team will play five regular season games against each U.S. team in the other conference over a four season cycle (two games in one of the seasons and one game in each of the other three seasons).
We shall have to see how things develop.
TTFN
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