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.
