Carol states:
>     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.
 
Bill replies:
> 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"?
 
The NHL adopted this rule last season and it seemed to work OK.  The
rule was put in to prevent defensive players from getting an easy
stoppage in play when the defense was in chaos.  I don't think it gave
that much of an advantage to the defensive players.  I seem to recall
in the few ECAC III E games I went to last season that hand passes in
the defensive end were not called.  I'm not sure, however, if this was
because of a rule change or the opaque glasses worn by the refs. :-)
 
As for the face shield rule change, I agree completely with Mike.  The
NCAA should start enforcing stricter penalties before going to the
half-shield.  Unfortunately, I think a ref would be more likely to
call a serious penalty if the possibility of serious injury was there.
This is, of course, wild speculation.  It wouldn't hurt to try
stricter penalties at first, even if they weren't called that often.
 
On a side note.  Will going to half-face shields raise the insurance
rates that schools have to pay?  If so, anyone have any idea on how
much?  Will this hurt the smaller schools that don't have huge
budgets?  Off-season is great for letting the mind wander!
 
Pete
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