>From the rumor mill.... Heard a rumor this past week-end that was disturbing. If it is true, we may be seeing the beginnings of a dramatically new direction for the ECAC and maybe for all college hockey. It seems as if someone has overheard an ECAC referee tell Team Captains in his pre-game spiel that he has been instructed to assess penalties for "big hits". One can only speculate that this decree has come from "On-high". Is this the reason why so many apparently clean bodychecks are being whistled down for "elbowing", "holding", "roughing", etc... Will it be just a matter of time until "Body Contact" becomes a penalty infraction in the official ECAC/NCAA hockey rules? Why is this happening? Is there a concern that some darting "water beetle" will have his compass scrambled by some mean, North Country human-missile hockey opponent? Will it lead to more of the vicious stick-work (hooking, hacking, slashing, spearing, etc.) which cowards use instead of open-ice face-to-face bodychecks, shoulder-checks or hip-checks? Is non-contact college football next! I can't wait! Anybody else have any thoughts on this subject? ==== That's the post.... If Jason Moy has not asked Commish Fenter yet about this in part 2 of his article in USCHO on the new ECAC Commish, I'd like him to. I find this disturbing if it is true. Apparently in the RPI - Cornell game 3 elbowing calls were made (also from another post on the board) that could have been classified as "big hits". Anybody else see anything and care to comment. Off to Athens, GA for a week. I'll keep in touch via laptop Joe HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.