:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/14223753/167093540.0.jpg)
There will be some rule changes next season.
Hybrid icing, in which the race to touch the puck on an icing call is judged to the faceoff dots instead of the goal line, will be implemented during pre-season games next season. The competition committee will then reconvene at the end of training camp and decide whether to keep it for the regular season or revert to the current icing rules.
The league is also looking at equipment — both for goalies and players — and making video review mandatory for any four-minute high-sticking penalty. As well, goalie nets will remain the same dimensions at their opening, but will have a shallower frame — 40 inches deep rather than 44 inches.
Visors will be mandatory - but current players will be grandfathered in.
The league’s competition committee emerged from a day-long meeting late Tuesday afternoon to announce that it had decided to grandfather-in visors, making them mandatory beginning next season for all players with less than 26 games of NHL experience.
The decision will require a rubber stamp from the NHL’s board of governors and the NHL Players’ Association’s executive board, but both will simply be formalities after a survey of players found the majority were on board with the move.
“This was the first time since we’ve been polling players that we’ve had a clear majority that wanted to grandfather it in,” said NHLPA special assistant Mathieu Schneider, who didn’t wear a visor during his nearly 1,300-game career. “We feel very comfortable with where the players stand on this.”
Did Duncan Keith mean to slash Jeff Carter in the head? There is video - what do you think?
In the heat of the battle, Chicago Blackhawks defenceman Duncan Keith looks like the kind of guy who would chop down a family member if it meant helping his team win.
But a slash right to the head of an opponent?
Keith pleaded innocent, to a point, when it came to the second-period high stick to the face of Los Angeles Kings forward Jeff Carter in one of the more vicious plays of these Stanley Cup playoffs.