About the face shields...
 
I dunno, I'm generally not in favor of changes that lessen the safety for
the players, and presumably the larger full shield is safer than the half
shield (or no shield at all).  But if the coaches and players are right, and
this change would indeed speed up and improve the game, then what I'd like
to see the NCAA do is crack down hard on stick fouls for a couple of seasons
BEFORE allowing the shield/mask change.  That way, the players could be
broken of the habit of bringing their sticks up, and the occasional "slow
learner" would be less likely to cause a serious head injury.  Then when the
teams went to the smaller shield, there wouldn't be so much worry about the
transitional period -- the players would have already been conditioned (by
severe penalties, not slaps on the wrist) to keep the sticks down.
 
As for the other rule change that Carol mentioned:
 
>     The NCAA Rules Committee also added or revised several other minor rules,
> the most significant being that hand passes will now be legal, by players in
> their defensive zone. Last season a hand pass resulted in a stoppage of play
> and a face-off.
 
Whoa.  This sounds like an April Fools' joke two months late.  Just what is
the idea behind allowing the players to hand pass at one end of the ice and
not the other?  Seems like this would give the defenders a bit too much of
an advantage.  Does anybody out there know of other levels of hockey where
hand passes are allowed?  (If so, how is it working out?)  And is this a for-
real rule change for next season, or is it a "proposal"?
--
Bill Fenwick
Cornell '86
LET'S GO RED!!
 
"I want a smart kid, like Mozart.  He was a genius... he wrote an opera when
 he was seven.  An opera!  Of course, you never hear that one."
-- Matt Weinhold