The Crypto Guy
Registered User
- Jun 26, 2017
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Edit - this basically pertains to Bantam and Midget levels, the hitting levels, 13 and older.
What the hell was USA hockey thinking when they sat down this summer and thought the changes they would make would be beneficial to the sport?
Major changes:
1) Players are NO LONGER allowed to check an opponent if his stick on not on the ice and he is not actively trying to play the puck. Yes, that means all those great hits where the players keep their arms down and hit their man in the chest is now an illegal hit and called roughing. Going into the corner and want to play the man who has the puck? BOOM, your sitting for 2 minutes for roughing since you did not try to get the puck with your stick.
2) Players are NO LONGER allowed to finish a check once the puck is released. Yes, this was always pretty much a rule but there was a very short grace period. That period is now ZERO. If you land a hit and the guy does not have the puck, even for a quarter second, you are sitting for roughing.
3) A player who is actively engaged with another player made not be hit by another player. I'm ok with this. Usually, they are in vulnerable positions and have no idea someone is coming in to blindside them.
3) Tag-up offsides have been ELIMINATED in all youth levels. Everything is automatic offsides. Great way to slow the game down tremendously and cause all sorts of sloppy play in the neutral zone as players are trying to get wait for their team to get back onsides.
4) Icing the puck during a PK has now been ELIMINATED in all youth levels. Yea, slow the game down even more. Lots of whistles.
5) All major penalties are now automatic game misconducts/suspensions. Yes, no more discretion for the referee. Used to be if there was an injury it was automatic game misconduct, made things simple, now they have eliminated that wording. The player could pop right back up and it won't matter, kid is leaving the game and sitting next game. I'm fine with player safety but didn't think there were any problems how it previously was.
I referee at a pretty high level and started getting my feet wet into coaching, I can say after the first few weeks of these new rules, NOBODY is happy. Players, coaches, referees, parents....nobody wants to hit because it's not worth it anymore, everything these kids have been taught has been thrown out. Everything these kids watch on TV is now illegal.
Is this how you try and grow the games? People are going to stop playing, it has gotten that bad. From game to game, ref to ref, the calls are wildly inconsistent because they just don't allow for anything. Refereeing has always been difficult to please people, now they have made it 10x worse.
The worst part is, none of these kids will know how to hit when they start playing High School hockey, where they don't have this garbage in their rulebooks. Kids will end up seriously injured because they never prepared properly for hitting.
Shame on you USA Hockey.
What the hell was USA hockey thinking when they sat down this summer and thought the changes they would make would be beneficial to the sport?
Major changes:
1) Players are NO LONGER allowed to check an opponent if his stick on not on the ice and he is not actively trying to play the puck. Yes, that means all those great hits where the players keep their arms down and hit their man in the chest is now an illegal hit and called roughing. Going into the corner and want to play the man who has the puck? BOOM, your sitting for 2 minutes for roughing since you did not try to get the puck with your stick.
2) Players are NO LONGER allowed to finish a check once the puck is released. Yes, this was always pretty much a rule but there was a very short grace period. That period is now ZERO. If you land a hit and the guy does not have the puck, even for a quarter second, you are sitting for roughing.
3) A player who is actively engaged with another player made not be hit by another player. I'm ok with this. Usually, they are in vulnerable positions and have no idea someone is coming in to blindside them.
3) Tag-up offsides have been ELIMINATED in all youth levels. Everything is automatic offsides. Great way to slow the game down tremendously and cause all sorts of sloppy play in the neutral zone as players are trying to get wait for their team to get back onsides.
4) Icing the puck during a PK has now been ELIMINATED in all youth levels. Yea, slow the game down even more. Lots of whistles.
5) All major penalties are now automatic game misconducts/suspensions. Yes, no more discretion for the referee. Used to be if there was an injury it was automatic game misconduct, made things simple, now they have eliminated that wording. The player could pop right back up and it won't matter, kid is leaving the game and sitting next game. I'm fine with player safety but didn't think there were any problems how it previously was.
I referee at a pretty high level and started getting my feet wet into coaching, I can say after the first few weeks of these new rules, NOBODY is happy. Players, coaches, referees, parents....nobody wants to hit because it's not worth it anymore, everything these kids have been taught has been thrown out. Everything these kids watch on TV is now illegal.
Is this how you try and grow the games? People are going to stop playing, it has gotten that bad. From game to game, ref to ref, the calls are wildly inconsistent because they just don't allow for anything. Refereeing has always been difficult to please people, now they have made it 10x worse.
The worst part is, none of these kids will know how to hit when they start playing High School hockey, where they don't have this garbage in their rulebooks. Kids will end up seriously injured because they never prepared properly for hitting.
Shame on you USA Hockey.
