No Icing, Tag-up Offsides, No center line.. did you like it?

[Riddarn]

European perspective:

I would never change our offside rule to match the NHL rule.
I'm quite indifferent to the two zone pass/no red line rule.
I hate the no touch icing. Sorry, I know it's for the safety of the players and all that but it totally ruins a part of the game.

Maybe you could tweak the no-touch icing rule. Make pucks shot behind the red line be touch icing pucks, and make pucks shot from behind the blue line no touch icings.

 

[Barnaby]

But don't they already do this??? at least some teams who trap. In my opinion all it needs to really do is create a few more scoring chances and I believe it will.

As for eveything else, I really liked the tag up offsides, really helped keep the game flowing. And it appears that I might be in the minority in saying that I do like the no-touch icing... I know it decreases certain races for the pucks, but i can still see Marco Sturm's broken ankle in my mind and I don't think it's worth it.

I agree. Who wants to see more unnecessary injuries? Anyway, most of the time it just waits time waiting for the d-man to get down there. I think it's a good rule.

These three rules combined with considerably smaller goalie equipment could really open up the game IMO.

If they don't do something then it'll just be back to "Referees have been told to call the clutching and grabbing..." Two weeks later nothing has changed...

 

[Knucklez]

I liked it. The only thing I can do without is no-touch icing because that means no more races for loose pucks to keep plays alive. It takes some hustle out of the game.

It also takes needless injuries out of the game, caused by racing for the puck. But I do see what you mean, I enjoy watching people race to beat out an icing, but I don't know if it's really worth the high risk of injury.

 

[Malefic74]

Rule changes aside I thought the best thing about the tournament was the consistency of the reffing, particularly on hits to the head and stick infractions. Hooking, tripping and slashing were not tolerated at all. What a novel concept.

As for the rules, I always liked the old offsides rule so if it comes back; great.

I have no problem with the two-line pass. Sure for a while it will be over-used and yes coaches will make moves to shut it down, but for those rare chances when players are in the right places at the right time it's nice to have. Case in point. Canada never really used it as a big part of their offense, but in game one Bergeron scored on a nice stretch pass from Crosby.

No touch icing I am in favor of, with one minor alteration. Icing should be from the defeding blue line only. Accomplishes two things.

1) If a player dumps a puck in from behind centre there is still that race for the puck that many fans really like.

2) If a player on his own side of centre tries to pass to a teamate over the line and the pass is missed, it's simply a dump-in and a chance to create offense via forechecking as opposed to yet another whistle. As it stands now the above play is whistled as icing so in effect players are punished for attempting to create a play. The result of that is the trap and players so scared of getting nailed for icing they dump instead of pass.