Spector on NHL: Better late than never
Posted March 13, 2012 4:08 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
BOCA RATON, FLORIDA – The National Hockey League general managers gathered among the spring break bikinis, under palm trees and 90 degree skies, to talk about icing.
And maybe that is the irony behind the rule change that’s been on the agenda five or six years. Hybrid icing never melted away, like so many proposals that haven’t passed muster at these meetings over the years.
It only took four or five snapped femurs along the way, and as many busted ankles, but after a couple of tweaks between now and the board of governors meetings at the Stanley Cup final — assuming the NHL Players’ Association does not kibosh this the way it did realignment — hybrid icing will be coming to an arena near you for the start of the 2012-13 season.
Assuming we get one of those, of course, with the collective bargaining agreement in limbo.
Edmonton GM Steve Tambellini lost prospect Taylor Fedun back in pre-season when he busted his right femur in an icing race with Eric Nystrom that went bad. It is testament to the conservative nature of this group that a step that so many hockey people — which includes a lot of these GMs — have been in favour of still took years to get to this point.
“I guess it takes a long time for anything to change. I’m just glad it happened now,” Tambellini said. “With the game opening up, the speed; decisions have to be made quicker. The speed of the race — things are just happening at a much high tempo than they were five, 10 years ago.”
The way the rule works is, on an icing play the race for the puck between two players will be watched by the linesman. If the defending player is ahead at the faceoff dot, the whistle is blown. If the winger looks like he’s going to win the race, it reverts to the current “touch icing” rule.
“Basically it’s a race to the faceoff dot,” explained Leafs GM Brian Burke. “Instead of having a defenceman and a forward determine that race three feet from the (end) boards, we want them to determine that race 30 feet from the boards.
“If I’m a defenceman and you chip the puck past me, I’ve just got to beat you to the faceoff dot and it’s an icing. It should take out a lot of collisions. It’s worked in the USHL. It’s worked in the NCAA. I think it’s long overdue, frankly.”
The other news Tuesday was also a piece of NHL business that has been simmering for years, as deputy commissioner Bill Daly informed the collective GMs that Alexander Radulov — the absentee Russian winger who bolted to the KHL in 2008 despite being under contract to the Nashville Predators — will be allowed to return to the Preds for their playoff drive should he choose to come.
He will not have to pass through waivers, as Marty Turco did before joining Boston, because Radulov was already under contract to Nashville. Also, his return this season — however short — will allow him to burn off the final year of his entry-level contract and become a restricted free agent this summer.
It’s a ruling that has some other GMs rankled — particularly out West, where the Predators get to add a potentially huge weapon right before the playoffs, with what appears to be somewhat of a special dispensation from the league.
“Bill and Gary (Bettman) have to make difficult decisions,” said St. Louis GM Doug Armstrong. “Their belief was he was a suspended player. It’s different than a player like the Reijo Ruotsalainen rule — that’s why it was put in — to park players over there. They didn’t feel (Radulov) got parked. I understand it from Nashville’s perspective, that they didn’t initiate this. The difficult part is from Radulov’s perspective he did.
“He gets his cake and eats it too. I understand Nashville’s point of view but from Radulov’s point of view, he wins on all fronts.”
Competitively, none of these GMs like to see a competitor catch a break like this. But most can see the point from Nashville GM David Poile’s side. He had a good player walk to Russia, and feels like he deserves to have him back if Radulov wishes to return.
“He is a player under contract. He has contractual obligations to Nashville,” Daly explained. “It would be unfair to the club that has the benefit and right to those contractual obligations not to be able to bring him back.
“It’s been black and white, for us,” Daly said of the league office. “We’ve consistently taken that position with every player who has gone AWOL on his contractual obligations.”
The final morsel of news will see the AHL debut of the Bowman, or ringette line for play next season. It will be a line from board to board atop the faceoff circles in each zone, the width of the goal line.
A player must advance the puck past the line in order to take the centre red-line out of play for offside. If you don’t pass the line, then the red-line is in play.
AHL commissioner Dave Andrews said he was fairly certain that, if the NHL GMs wanted to test drive the Bowman Line in his league, that the AHL would be receptive.
