No Touch Icing Should Be Implemented
The NHL has a constant problem, every year, and this year is no exception. Up until last week, the league put no touch icing on the shelf, it’s funny to see what happens when there is a grave incident that occurs.
Last week San Jose Sharks player Torrey Mitchell injured Minnesota Wild player Kurtis Foster, the incident occurred when both players where in a race for the puck, and foster got hammered into the boards breaking his leg, it was a play for the puck, but someone got injured, so perhaps it’s time for the league to stop looking at more ways to make money, and start looking more carefully at increasing the safety of the players who bring the league money.
The NHL, more like Gary Bettman, is trying so hard to introduce the basketball aspect to the game that safety is put on the back burner, why else would it take so long to implement no touch icing? Well, there have been some reports that Bettman likes the NASCAR aspect, meaning that two players are racing for the puck, and there is a crash at the end. There is only one problem with that, in NASCAR the cars do the crashes, not the people driving them, in hockey, it;s the players that do the crashing, but when it comes to full on racing for a call that could have been made already, well that’s just ridiculous.
The NHLPA I’m sure, is all for the league adopting this rule of no touch icing, look, the season is already long, add the play-offs to that and it’s even longer. The NHL is even toying with adding more games, are they nuts? The players are already tired at the end of the season thanks to some moronic scheduling by the league, the schedule is too ridiculous, some teams don’t play each other for a year or two, most teams play let’s say, two games in California, fly to Phoenix, then come back to Cali, what is up with that? Some, or most players are tired enough as it is, why give them a schedule like that, and plus, now, the league is looking at possibly adding more games. Like I said, stop with the trying to make money, and concentrate on player safety, if you would like your product to stay and help you make money!!
With the increasing injuries, the NHL has no choice but to adopt the no touch icing rule, under certain factors of course, not to just have it be an automatic, but it should still be implemented some how, I’m sure that the self called NHL wizards will come up with a way to install this rule while still preserving the race aspect, after all, they do such a bang up job with the way they schedule games, and the way they are not bias when handing out suspensions, that this latest rule should be a piece of cake right?
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An avid hockey fan. Favorite team is the Montreal Canadiens.
I grew up in Montreal following the Habs all my life.
My thought is that hockey is the greatest sport.
I eat and sleep hockey.
I watch anywhere between 250-400 NHL games a year.
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The problem is that a lot of players DON’T want to change the icing rule. TSN had an informal player poll on the subject, and only 13 of 23 players who responded were in favour of no-touch icing… While obviously it’s not a fair sampling to make any decisions on, you have to wonder why players aren’t in favour of their own safety. Maybe we should let them go back to no helmets too!
by Dan Rakusan on March 26th, 2008 at 11:57 AM EDT
If players do not wish to have that rule, then fans should not be subjected to hear them complaining about it, ever,
they may not be doing it now, but you can bet soon enough when a star goes down, they will.
by Bryen Owen on March 26th, 2008 at 4:33 PM EDT
Fair enough, but we can’t chastize them ahead of time…
by Dan Rakusan on March 26th, 2008 at 11:36 PM EDT
Good piece, Bryen.
It’s just a shame that something like the Foster incident has to happen before something that makes perfect sense is brought up.
by Frank Mazzola on March 27th, 2008 at 4:05 PM EDT
Thanks, that is what ususally happens, nothing, until someone gets injured.
by Bryen Owen on March 27th, 2008 at 7:10 PM EDT