Idea: Hybrid Offside

[Five Alarm Fire]

If the league really wanted to free up the neutral zone, would the following rule adjustment work?

Offside is only called upon re-entry. i.e. only called in the following situation:

• The offensive team is currently in the opposition's zone with the puck. The defensive team clears the puck past the blue line, deeming all offensive players within the zone offside. All players that are offside by this definition must leave the zone before the offensive team can re-enter the zone with possession.
• Let's call the status of the offensive zone when all offside players have "tagged-up" to be clear.

So, when the offensive zone is "clear", players are allowed to cross the blue line before the puck without being called offside.

The idea behind this is to not completely neuter defenses, but at the same time discourage teams from clogging up the neutral zone. You can think of it as an extension of the two-line pass rule removal, but now the entire surface of the ice is accessible during a breakout.


Thoughts? Interested to hear criticisms, but I've been on HFBoards long enough to know that I'll likely be flamed

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[Seanaconda]

If the league really wanted to free up the neutral zone, would the following rule adjustment work?

Offside is only called upon re-entry. i.e. only called in the following situation:

• The offensive team is currently in the opposition's zone with the puck. The defensive team clears the puck past the blue line, deeming all offensive players within the zone offside. All players that are offside by this definition must leave the zone before the offensive team can re-enter the zone with possession.
• Let's call the status of the offensive zone when all offside players have "tagged-up" to be clear.

So, when the offensive zone is "clear", players are allowed to cross the blue line before the puck without being called offside.

The idea behind this is to not completely neuter defenses, but at the same time discourage teams from clogging up the neutral zone. You can think of it as an extension of the two-line pass rule removal, but now the entire surface of the ice is accessible during a breakout.


Thoughts? Interested to hear criticisms, but I've been on HFBoards long enough to know that I'll likely be flamed

Would probably be pretty confusing for the linesmen.

Otherwise I don't hate it

 

[DearDiary]

That could easily be abused. Maybe have a rule that you cannot go past the last defender and another rule where any attacking player cannot pick up speed before the center line if the zone is cleared

 

[bobermay]

There has been too many rule changes as it is... Lets just keep hockey as hockey and not as some other sport...

 

[RABBIT]

one of the more well thought out rule changes proposed. Nice job. Other than that, I agree with the poster above. We should stop changing the rules so much.

 

[The Nuge]

You can't simply not have offside for zone entries. If you did that every team is just going to have their best player stand by the other teams goalie, and fire pucks down the ice to them to them. And as a result, teams will have to leave one dman in their zone to cover the other teams forward, and then the other 3 are rovers. That just makes the game 4 against 4, negates icing, and likely causes a huge spike in scoring.

 

[Caeldan]

You can't simply not have offside for zone entries. If you did that every team is just going to have their best player stand by the other teams goalie, and fire pucks down the ice to them to them. And as a result, teams will have to leave one dman in their zone to cover the other teams forward, and then the other 3 are rovers. That just makes the game 4 against 4, negates icing, and likely causes a huge spike in scoring.

Yeah, there's plenty of defenseman (and centers for that matter) that can make the 'hail mary' pass if allowed.
And just allowing a guy to cherry pick behind the defense means that'll be the primary play both ways.

It'll turn into basketball 'fast breaks' all game long.

 

[Seanaconda]

You can't simply not have offside for zone entries. If you did that every team is just going to have their best player stand by the other teams goalie, and fire pucks down the ice to them to them. And as a result, teams will have to leave one dman in their zone to cover the other teams forward, and then the other 3 are rovers. That just makes the game 4 against 4, negates icing, and likely causes a huge spike in scoring.

That's not what op was proposing tho

 

[HockeyGuy1964]

You can't simply not have offside for zone entries. If you did that every team is just going to have their best player stand by the other teams goalie, and fire pucks down the ice to them to them. And as a result, teams will have to leave one dman in their zone to cover the other teams forward, and then the other 3 are rovers. That just makes the game 4 against 4, negates icing, and likely causes a huge spike in scoring.

Sure you can.

Just re-institute the offside pass rule, maybe using the offensive blueline rather than the red line as the offside indicator, that way you can't just fire it to the "cherry picker" until you're over your own blue line.
You could also make the "cherry picker" not count for icing purposes meaning if you're over your blueline(negating the offside pass) & make the pass it can still be icing if the "cherry picker" doesn't play the puck before the goal line. In this instance it just reverts to the hybrid icing if the defenceman is ahead of "the next" offensive player at the top of the circle, & if the "cherry picker" plays it after it crosses the goal line it's an automatic icing or maybe just go to the no-touch icing rule completely.

Of course there will be unforseen problems with these rule changes just like there always are.

One thing I've always considered is to make the red line as the point where the defensive zone is cleared thus making the offensive zone bigger once onside play has been established. You leave every other rule as is.

 

[HarrySPlinkett]

All they need to do is make the blue line the barrier for offensive zone entry, and once it has been gained, the play is on side until the defending team moves the puck past center.

Unlike on international ice, players couldn't keep the play to the outside and stay in the middle. While it provides extra room for the offensive players, using the extra space inherently takes you closer to your own net. So teams are still forced to go forward with the puck, rather than hanging out a hundred feet from the goal and playing catch.

Players will get tired, they'll forget to get to center, they'll make mistakes, and they'll give up goals. That's how scoring actually gets increased, not by making it a special teams game, shrinking the pads, or making the nets bigger.

Oh, and get rid of the trapezoid. Goalies are terrible at handling the puck, except for like three guys. But all goalies think they're one of those three who doesn't suck. Let goalies wander and get caught, that'll be good for fifty extra goals a year.