NHL: The State of Hockey

By Lee Manchur Sports Central Columnist

There isn't much worth noting to watch on Canadian cable networks with the evil Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission disallowing shows to go on the air while allowing others with seemingly little logic. However, somewhere along the line, they allowed a group from Toronto to form The Sports Network (TSN), and ever since, that has been the home for Team Canada during the World Junior Hockey Championships each year during the Christmas season.

Late December and early January, I had the privilege of watching all of Team Canada's games. Not only did these games feature the brightest NHL stars of tomorrow from eight different countries, but they also featured a brand of rules that are used only in European and international play, never witnessed in the United States or Canada until events like this one.

No-touch icing; bigger ice surface; no red line for two-line passes; foreign official - for better or worse, they were all there.

And once again, just like last year's World Junior Championships and the 1998 Olympic Games, the topic of whether or not these international rules should be brought into the major leagues in North America - the Canadian Hockey League (CHL), American Hockey League (AHL), International Hockey League (IHL), and, of course, the National Hockey League (NHL) - was brought up.

No-Touch Icing

The only North American league that has not brought in this rule is the NHL. Hockey broadcasters, fans, coaches, and players alike are screaming at league officials to implement this. Too many times since the league was formed have players been in a mad race to touch the puck to either have an icing called or waved off, and the end result is a collision by both players into the boards resulting in serious leg injuries or concussions. This is one rule the NHL should have brought in many, many years ago. Blues defenseman Al MacInnis almost ended his career over ten years ago in his days with the Calgary Flames racing for the puck and colliding into the boards with another player. As Hockey Night in Canada commentator Don Cherry has stated many times, "Someday, someone will get killed in a race like that, and then they will chance the rule."

Bigger Ice Surface

The 1998 Winter Olympics were the first in which NHL players were allowed to play. Team officials did not build teams that were all about fighting and bone-crunching hits. Instead, nearly all the countries created finesse teams with limited gritty players. The result was an unbelievable brand of hockey with seemingly unlimited room for these finesse players to show off their offense skills, creating numerous scoring opportunities. However, when the NHL season resumed, we were back to a small ice surface with a lot of enforcers on the ice which once again limited the room for offense-type players to be creative with the puck. The NHL should adopt a rule giving each arena two to three years to expand their ice surface to the international size, therefore opening up the game.

No Two-Line Pases

I am a huge fan of eliminating the red line for two-line pass purposes. It would force everyone on the team, including coaches and players, to be "in the game" at all points in time. The coach, as a result of having the red line removed, would have to be extra careful while making line changes. In Team Canada's semifinal match-up versus Team Finland, there were numerous times the Finnish team made long passes from their defensive zone to Canada's blue line during a Team Canada line change. The result of this was more scoring chances, and eliminating two-line passes in the NHL game, or any North American league, would definitely help popularize the sport by having more scoring and the finesse players showing off their moves one-on-one against the goaltender.

International Officials

After some questionable calls by officials who were favorable to one team or another in various international hockey competitions many years ago, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) was formed as a governing body for all international hockey tournaments. At the World Junior Championships, we saw why we do not want officials from countries like Switzerland and Russia officiating North American hockey games. After Team Canada got an apparent roughing call on a Finnish player during the semifinals at the World Junior Championships, TSN hockey analyst Bob Mackenzie said, "This was a penalty for hitting too hard." The reason for Mackenzie saying this was that it was a perfectly legal hit, but officials from European countries are not familiar with the North American brand of hockey which includes hard hits like the one Mackenzie was talking about.

Although I enjoyed the style of play by most of the European teams at the tournament, which means long passes and more scoring opportunities, I do still enjoy "good ol' Canadian hockey" which includes bone-crunching hits in the corners, along the boards, and in the trolly tracks. It is obvious that officials from European countries are against "hitting too hard" - this isn't soccer, guys! Right now, I am very pleased with the officiating at all levels of hockey in North America, and that is one thing we should not change on this continent.

As you can see by reading this column, I am in favor of a style of play that promotes high-scoring chances through a hard-fought game with lots of body checks. Eliminating the red line for two-line passes and creating a bigger ice surface would do this. Having officials from foreign countries, however, would be against this style.

But whether or not you prefer my style of hockey or a purely defensive style, I think all would agree that no-touch icing is needed in hockey to preserve the careers of NHLers and the stars of tomorrow in the minor leagues.

Article courtesy of Sports Central