Recently I had a post regarding the Research and Development camp that the NHL held where it looked at potential changes to the game of hockey. While the game is as good as it has ever been in my opinion I love the fact that the NHL is being pro-active in looking to improve game play and player safety rather than re-active, and I've stated that on many occasions. I have also commented on a number of their changes, either in opposition of or curious about them. However one thing I haven't done thus far is present my ideas for what could be tested out in the camp. With this post I change that as I present many ideas for things that I would have the NHL test out in the next RDO Camp if I had a say in the decision making process.
There are many things which I would likely look at again if they don't make the list of changes this year, and from the sounds of things while lots of ideas have generated discussion the only ones likely to see implementation soon are the verification line and shallower nets. The first is a bit of a no-brainer, and the second I'm looking forward to seeing live myself. There are also things that haven't been looked at that I would like to see. Here is my rundown of things I would like to see looked at for the first time, or looked at further.
The first thing I would look at is something that has been looked at for two years in a row and still merits further discussion, no-touch or hybrid icing. I'm not saying that I want to see touch-up icing gone, just that I'd like to see further looks into it for the safety of players. Perhaps after seeing more of the other options I would agree that touch-up icing is the way to go, but having seen a bit of the other options that exist I'm not convinced that any one is better than the others and as such perhaps player safety should be the determining factor, and if that is the case than touch up icing has more risk than non-touch and perhaps even hybrid icing.
The second thing that I'd take a look at involves refs. While the NHL has looked at ways to improve communication between the two on ice, and looked last year at moving one ref off the ice to create more room, they haven't done a lot else with the refs in the camps. My idea is something that I've always thought was common sense, and when the NHL went to four on ice officials I didn't understand. As things are two referees are responsible for most calls where two linesmen are responsible for things such as puck drops and offsides. To me it makes perfect sense to remove a ref thus removing a body from the ice, but in doing so allow the linesmen to make calls as well. The "head ref" could be the main guy in charge but it doesn't make sense that the linesmen don't call what they see if a penalty occurs currently.
Another thing I wouldn't mind seeing, but likely won't and likely isn't a realistic option, is a larger ice surface. Expanding to the Olympic size ice or even somewhere between that and the current size and giving players more room might be a great thing to see, and it may improve the game as well, but this is one likely not to be tested or implemented because of the costs associated with changing every arena out there if the new ice size was to be adopted.
Another thing I'd like to see looked at, and again this is one that would have costs associated with it, is changing a player's pads. I'm all for protecting players, but the padding is often made of very hard plastics now. changing elbow pads and perhaps shoulder pads at least to have soft foam over the plastic could allow a layer of protection for players being hit, not just the player doing the hitting. The harder plastic underneath could still protect from pucks and sticks and the like. I think it is time for the NHL to really look at the padding used by players for their own protection, and perhaps it is past time as we see more and more concussions occurring or at least being diagnosed in today's games. On a similar note is it time to grandfather in a required visor rule? Every player has to play with visors or cages growing up so is it that big of a requirement going forward?
One thing the NHL has done is looked at overtime and shootouts in recent years. They have looked at things such as 4-on-4 then 3-on-3 before the shootout, which I really dislike. 3-on-3 just doesn't seem right to me and what happens on penalties? Personally what I would like to see, and what I think would work best, is to implement 4-on-4 for 7 minutes (perhaps 8), then have a 5 person shootout with sudden death after if still tied. I would also switch ends in overtime making for the "long change". I think switching ends and adding a couple of minutes would result in more overtime decisions and less shootouts.
I realize that the list of half a dozen things that I put above is quite a bit short of the number of things that are looked at in each RDO camp these past two seasons, but I really enjoy the game as it is and thus aren't overly interested in seeing a lot of things changed. Of course I'll have other ideas later, some fleeting and some ridiculous, but some worth further thought, but those that I listed above are things that I really think the NHL should look into and are things that I think could improve the game. Perhaps we'll see some of them in a future RDO camp, perhaps not, but either way I love the game as it is and can't wait for the next season to get started already.
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