Friday, May 30, 2014

New fighting rule sucker punches AJHL

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A rule change to Junior A hockey for the upcoming season has left owners in the Alberta Junior Hockey League feeling like they've been fed so many rights they're begging for a left. Hockey Canada has imposed a new one fight rule for Junior A hockey across the country, meaning if you drop the gloves, you get the gate.  
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I'm not a barbarian that wants bench clearing brawls but I do like a few scraps in the game.  I also like a guy that can score goals and take care of himself every once in a while.  This totally discourages that.  It also encourages the bull - you know what that will happen when player X who skates on one team's 4th line goes after player Y who skates on another team's top line.  If the star player defends himself and the ref doesn't hand out an instigator penalty, then both guys get tossed and the Karl Racki's of Youngblood are running the place.  It's a bad system when that happens.  

The AJHL saw that and didn't want it, but it was basically shoved down their collective throats by Hockey Canada and the CJHL.  

Not one owner voted in favour of the rule, and at the national level the AJHL was the only league to vote NO in a 9-1 vote in favour of the new rule.  Some league Presidents in some leagues didn't vote the way some of their owners would have liked. 


Other changes of note, when a puck is shot directly over the glass from the defensive zone, no penalty will be given, but the offending team will not be able to change players.  Also teams will not be able to change when icing the puck from their own zone this coming season.  

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