Post by bcspirit72 on Aug 20, 2014 17:58:10 GMT -5
The OHL has announced new rules for this season under the guise of player safety and increases the power of the stellar on-ice officiating.
www.ontariohockeyleague.com/article/2014-15-ohl-on-ice-player-safety-initiatives
While the additional rules about staged fighting are not entirely ridiculous and have some merit the inclusion of all faceoffs goes a bit too far. This seems to add credence to the position of some Branch critics that he is on a mission to eliminate all fighting and contact in the OHL. The lack of a reset after the threshold for the minor penalty suspensions leaves the ability in the hands of on-ice officials to cripple a team by making bad checking to the head/from behind calls and kneeing or boarding calls. One would hope that the team would be able to appeal some of these calls to reduce undeserved penalties in these categories which makes it necessary to have staff at the league offices to review every game. The financial penalty to the clubs are not necessarily a bad thing as it could prevent certain teams from gooning it up when being beaten badly late in a game. It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the season.
www.ontariohockeyleague.com/article/2014-15-ohl-on-ice-player-safety-initiatives
While the additional rules about staged fighting are not entirely ridiculous and have some merit the inclusion of all faceoffs goes a bit too far. This seems to add credence to the position of some Branch critics that he is on a mission to eliminate all fighting and contact in the OHL. The lack of a reset after the threshold for the minor penalty suspensions leaves the ability in the hands of on-ice officials to cripple a team by making bad checking to the head/from behind calls and kneeing or boarding calls. One would hope that the team would be able to appeal some of these calls to reduce undeserved penalties in these categories which makes it necessary to have staff at the league offices to review every game. The financial penalty to the clubs are not necessarily a bad thing as it could prevent certain teams from gooning it up when being beaten badly late in a game. It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the season.