The CHL will announce Monday at its meetings in Dallas that it is adopting the same rules on hits to the head as the NHL. The meeting will be held in Dallas. Here's the language to the new rules.
* A lateral, back pressure or blind side hit to an opponent, where the head is targeted and/or the principle point of contact, is no permitted. Lateral contact must be made through the body, not the head. Lateral contact is the responsibility of the hitter to avoid principle contact with the head.
* This infraction will result in a Major penalty, an automatic Game Misconduct and an automatic review by league for further supplemental discipline (there is no Minor penalty for this infraction.)
* All previous hits to the head criteria remain the same, with this new criteria being implemented (e.g. a frontal hit that makes legal contact with the head is still permitted.)
The league is also going to resurface a the middle of the ice before shootouts.
The CHL may also vote on possibly not to include shootout wins in the equation for the first tiebreaker to establish playoff position, which is wins. I believe the thinking here is that a team that has more wins in regulation should get more credit than a team that has a lot of wins in shootouts, which makes some sense.
Comments
I agree Blake that shootout points need not be more important than regulation wins. I believe the shootout was put in for fan entertainment. For the Olympics to award the Gold medal to a team that wins the shootout is pure lunacy!! Would the NBA award the championship in game 7 of the finals to the team that wins a freethrow shooting contest?? Leta get the CHL season started.
Off-topic:
Any news on Justin Hodgman or Mike Liambas in the Toronto Camp? I looked on their website, no mention of either of them. No updated materials on either the Marlies site or the Reading site either. Just wondered if anyone has heard anything about how they did in camp, and where the 2 might end-up?
Hit-
Hodgman was sent to the Marlies last thursday..hope that helps..oh and Liambias was released from his PTO
Dump the shoot outs and go back to real hockey with OT and ties. Since that won't happen then I agree, shootout wins shouldn't be figured in.
Thanks Mark.
I agree with Steve. Dump the shoot-outs. I have always felt it was like kissing your sister! O/T wins should count as wins. Ties should not count towards the Championship.
Is the CHL keeping the Instigator Rule or doing away with it as the IHL did?
As much as anything, shootouts are there to get regular season games ended reasonably on schedule. Teams have hosting, venue, and travel considerations and being late 2 hours because the goalies get in a groove or your shooters go cold isn't practical in the regular season. I wish the NHL would adopt a 5 shooter format.
CHL DOES use the instigator rule.
Kings Fan, OT during the regular season was only five minutes and was sudden death. Still tied after five? It's a tie and each team got a point and went home.
The sudden death OT is still there although modified and shoot outs were put in to end ties so a clear winner would get two points and the loser get one (except for goalies, the shoot out loss wasn't suppose to affect their stats. The other reason it was added was for entertainment purposes. Fans love penalty shoots so why not give them a few more?
I'm not 100% sure but I think it was the old IHL that started shootouts, I think they were the first league to use them, at least in the States. The AHL and NHL shunned them for years. Then the NHL had the AHL try them out before they would accept them IIRC. That's an advantage to the AHL, you have to try out every hair-brained idea the NHL comes up with :-)
I don't remember his name but the owner of the Cleveland Lumberjacks was very vocal about his objection to the shootouts. He later commented on the irony of his dislike for them because Cleveland had the best record for shootouts in the IHL and so gained the most points from them.
Steve,
I think the owner you're talking about was Larry Gordon(?) If I remember correctly, he actually helped to introduce the shootout to the old IHL after seeing it being used in a tournament in Alaska. I think it was introduced in the mid to late 1980's.
Holy crap, Steve and Bob, you have good memories. This story is from 1993.
SHOOTOUT ADVOCATE'S TEAM LOSES 'EM
Source: BLAKE SEBRING OF THE NEWS-SENTINEL
The man most responsible for starting the overtime shootout in the International Hockey League has a team that rarely wins one.
The Cleveland Lumberjacks owner and general manager, Larry Gordon, says he gets almost constant ribbing from other IHL front-office personnel, but he still believes in the shootout, even though the Lumberjacks didn't win a shootout in the first two years the league used them.
"My record is as usual the worst in the league at 1-7," Gordon said with a laugh. "I still think too often owners, general managers, coaches and players forget who the h--- is allowing you to play this game, and it's the fans. The most exciting play in the game today is the penalty shot, and in the shootouts there's nobody left sitting in the seats."
Gordon's idea may be catching on. Anaheim Mighty Ducks owner Michael Eisner is expected to make a proposal for the shootout at the NHL Board of Governors meeting this weekend in Los Angeles. It is not expected to pass, Gordon said. NHL general managers also love the shootouts in the IHL because it gives them a chance to watch top prospects in a pressure situation.
The Komets are getting sick of the shootouts. In 24 games this season, 11 have gone to shootouts, the most in the IHL. They played in only 10 overtimes all of last season.
The franchise record for overtime losses in a season is 11 set in 1989-90. The most ties in a season are 17 in the 1977-78 season.
The shootout was supposed to provide excitement, but it may have the opposite effect in some games. When a team gets a lead, the players play more conservatively. The team with the lead knows that even if its opponent scores, there's still a shot to win the shootout.
The shootout is tightening up the league races. At the quarter point in the season, 11 of the 13 teams are on pace for 100-point years.
When the shootout format began in 1985-86, the league used the shootout after a five-minute overtime, but this year the league dropped the overtime and went straight to the shootout.
''I think it has speeded up the game, and certainly it has resulted in more of the actual shootouts," Gordon said. He said it gives "fans more of what they want."
Last year, 61 of 96 overtime games required shootouts, 119 of 183 over the last two seasons. Entering this week, 40 of 157 IHL games this season ended in shootouts.
Well, sort of. I was wrong about Larry Gordon, I was thinking he was against them and Cleveland did well with them.
Blake,
Thanks for the compliment....my memory didn't help me find my glasses this morning (cat knocked them into my shoes!) LOL.
Will the CHL use the 5:00 overtime before the shootout?