New rule in swedish hockey: not allowed to hit when players just passed the puck

[Oleksiak]

You know what, Cherry has every right to call Euros softies

That stereotype died for me with Konstantinov. Ovi sure as hell aint soft either.

 

[LT]

Good. Less mostly pointless hits. The safer the players, the better the game.

People all too often seem to conflate reducing unnecessary physicality (which is good) with straight up removing physicality (which shouldn't happen).

 

[Aahlstroem]

Here's an example where the rule was used, he got a game misconduct but wasn't banned for any games after the discipline board had reviewed the play. My biggest issue with the rule is how it's written, basically it says that if a player plays the puck and then relaxes you can't hit him, laying all the responsibility on the player delivering the hit even if the hit's already been initiated.

However, the discipline board stated that they couldn't find any evidence that Widerström had understood that Andersson had relaxed when the hit was delivered and thus he did not recieve additional penalties for the hit.

 

[Bakayoko Ono]

You can definitely see younger Liiga players play more recklessly and without the appropriate awareness of what's going on around them, e.g. carrying the puck through the offensive blue-line with their heads down, admiring their passes, dishing out suicide passes.

 

[sakux]

Why would you possibly want that?

Because it will get rid of the goons and make room for more skilled players in the NHL.