NHL Rules under review at Development Camp

[Barts66 0]

Personally, I think the only rules that should be implemented in the NHL are the no touch icing(Takes away many injuries) and thicker blue line. I definantly hate the three face off circles and think it would change the great game of hockey way too much. I don't like any of the new nets and think that they should remain the way they are. I think the red mesh does nothing but take away from what people imagine a hockey rink like. With all the new technology, I think that the NHL is trying to go too far and take away from the drama of the game. Sure, some calls may not always be right,but having every call be the right call takes away too much from the game.

I say that the only new rule changes the NHL needs to make are rule changes that affect the players' safety for the good.

[hyprlte 0]

Something about this picture just doesn't sit right with me.

[sickwilly 37]

Something about this picture just doesn't sit right with me.

Agreed. That ain't right.

[hamstercaster 2]

Most of these rules don't bother me and the face off circle in the middle could actually give some options on the face off that could prove to be interesting.

My problem with the tests they are doing, at least to an extent is that the NHL seems to always be looking for ways to have more goals scored and that's where I think they are wrong. Goals are one part of the whole equation on how offensive a game is. I mean, a 1-0 game can be more offensive than a 3-2 game. It often depends on a mirriad of factors. The goalies being hot, players missing good scoring chances and all. I'm all for creating more offense but not at the extent of goalies for exemple ie: stop tinkering with equipment, goal size, restricted zones, mesh color etc. What's going to be next if that doesn't work. Goalies forced to wear black pads? Playing with a white puck?

Concentrate on the real problems of the game. Serious injuries, officiating and actually applying the damn rule book and calling any and every infraction in the book. That will result IMO in faster better hockey along with the added offense (goals) the league is looking for. Also, a team on PK should not be allowed to clear the zone. You reward the penalized team with something that is not even accepted when 5 on 5! The penalized player should stay in the box till the end of his actual penalty.

[VakarLajos 5]

Spoke to the guy behind the red nets and gray posts. He dropped some knowledge on me there. There's a lot of research he went through that shows the eye recognizes the color red first. He definitely went through a lot to make sure it was sound. He said that gray helped neutralize the posts and allowed the eye to recognize the net better. (At least that's what I got out of it) Going to see if he'd be willing to write up a better explanation for me.

It also doesn't change the angles or effect how the goalie does the job.

Also, it's one of the most cost effective ideas. All you're doing is dying the nets and painting the posts.

[Barts66 0]

Something about this picture just doesn't sit right with me.

Makes the rink seem smaller too.

[frankie56 0]

Taking away icing on the PK and making everyone serve the full 2 min will put too much emphasis on special teams.

[Neal 41]

Spoke to the guy behind the red nets and gray posts. He dropped some knowledge on me there. There's a lot of research he went through that shows the eye recognizes the color red first. He definitely went through a lot to make sure it was sound. He said that gray helped neutralize the posts and allowed the eye to recognize the net better. (At least that's what I got out of it) Going to see if he'd be willing to write up a better explanation for me.

It also doesn't change the angles or effect how the goalie does the job.

Also, it's one of the most cost effective ideas. All you're doing is dying the nets and painting the posts.

We actually discussed this on MSH a year ago (or so). The concept has been around for a while. The guy behind the research has said something to the effect of that "if you wanted to design the goal and netting to make it harder to score, the red posts and white netting are what you'd go with".

It is an interesting approach and if they went with a two tone netting red on the inside and white on the back(like the itech phantom cages) the overall look of the ice would change only a little. I'd miss the red posts though.

[DarkStar50 679]

Brendan Shanahan was in the shop yesterday morning for his son's mite practice. After buying some gear, I asked him this question: Before the scrimmage games, which rule did you like the least that after the games you actually liked the most? He said the face-off change where on the second attempt, the penalized center had to back up a 12" more off the dot to take the draw. He liked the way it worked out from keeping guys honest to then sacrificing a lot to win a face-off.

[RadioGaGa 162]

http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?catid=35&id=75548&navid=DL|NHL|home

I would assume this is the video being shown to the teams as the season starts.

[MLSman 22]

I still get great satisfaction in saying we were on that ice 3 weeks before they were! Makes modsquad awesome.

In any case, carefully going over our SJ2 pics...they repainted. Our blue lines and circles were normal, and there were no mods of the line change area. I can't imagine those drastic changes would have gone unnoticed by us sticklers to every single mod of a piece of gear. We would have certainly noticed larger blue lines...and a circle in the middle of each zone.

On topic, I really like the yellow lines to make it easier to pickup goals on camera, and the larger blue line. One of the advantages of the larger blue line would be to decrease offsides calls...and that would continue to add speed to the game. I love the speed we now see post-lockout. I like that they are working on the faceoff area to make draws as fair as possible...but the circles are good where they are.