On the news on WLVI-TV56 in Boston tonight, during a story about the injury suffered by Suffolk's John Gilpatrick (detailed earlier today on INFO-HOCKEY-L), it was mentioned that as a result of this and other injuries that have occurred recently, Northeastern coach Ben Smith plans to propose a major college hockey rule change soon. If I remember correctly, the rule change would involve outlawing all checking either along the boards or into the boards. Smith was shown talking a little about the idea, but unfortunately I didn't hear much of it. This would be a drastic change and will probably result in a lot of discussion and arguments for and against the proposal. If anyone else heard more of the story and interview than I did, I would welcome the posting of more details. Perhaps one of the Boston papers will run a piece on it. Note that Gilpatrick's injury actually came when he was knocked into the net, not the boards. However, it did come as a result of a hit from behind, and I would not be surprised if at the least, stronger penalties for such infractions are advocated. --- --- Mike Machnik [log in to unmask] *HMM* 11/13/93 >> Co-owner of the College Hockey Lists at University of Maine System << ***** Unofficial Merrimack Hockey home page located at: ***** ***** http://www.tiac.net/users/machnik/MChockey/MChockey.html ***** HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.