Did the annual glance over the new rule book. Here’s what I caught as far as rules changes for 2008-09, not counting some cleaning-up of language:
5.1: Change to 18+2. Makes the necessary changes in the veteran rule to account for it.
9.3: Creates specifications for maximum dimensions in smaller sweater sizes.
9.4: Same thing for goaltenders’ sweaters. Takes out the exemption for third jerseys, which were still allowed to comply with the 2006-07 specs.
11.2: Goaltender leg guards. Lots and lots of specifications. Calf-wing protectors can’t be attached to the five-hole. Need a “defined boot channel” so “the skate slots into it.” And so on.
15.4: If a team is killing a major, has a delayed minor coming up against it, and a goal is scored against it, the minor is washed out. (This sounds like just a clarification, no?)
16.1: A minor penalty in regular-season overtime is one minute. “During the Regular Season… (i)f a minor penalty occurring in regulation has not expired prior to the start of overtime, the player will serve half of the time remaining on the penalty.”
18.1: Reiterates the one-minute overtime minor rule for double minors.
23.7: Takes out “post-game verbal abuse from players, goalkeepers or non-playing club personnel (on or off the ice)” from the list of infractions that can “also” result in a game misconduct. (See 40.5.)
40.2 (vi): Clarifies that, if a player gets an additional unsportsmanlike-conduct minor on top of his original penalty, it’s tacked on to the end of the initial penalty.
40.5 (ii): Adds players to the list of people who are to be given a game misconduct if, after receiving a bench minor, he persists in using “obscene, profane or abusive language or gesture directed at any on or off-ice official or uses the name of any official coupled with any vociferous remarks.” And here’s where 23.7 comes in: If it’s after the game, the bench-minor isn’t a prerequisite.
53.1: Reiterates from 10.3 that “a player who has lost or broken his stick may only receive a stick at his own players’ bench or be handed one from a teammate on the ice.”
60.1: Accidental contact against a bent-over center during a faceoff isn’t to be considered high-sticking.
60.3: High-sticking that results in injury, if “accidental or careless,” is now a double-minor instead of a major.
63.2: Deliberately batting the puck out of play during action is no longer an automatic game misconduct; the automatic game misconduct remains for deliberately batting the puck out of play during a stoppage. Um… oh, right. A player who shoots a puck directly over the glass from his own zone (except off a faceoff) is hit with a minor penalty. (Sigh.)
63.7 (iii): Adds “shooting or batting the puck… over the glass from the defensive zone” to the list of automatic delay-of-game penalties.
67.1: Changes the language so that it’s not just the referee who can call a hand pass, but “the on-ice officials.”
69.6: If the goalie and the puck together are pushed into the net by an attacking player, the goal is still disallowed. However, if the referee rules that the attacking player was pushed or fouled by a defensive player, he can allow the goal.
70.1: About leaving the bench during an altercation; the change takes out the part that substitutions prior to the altercation may be permitted as long as they don’t join in.
73.4: No rule change, just a catch by someone: “tean” becomes “team.” Like it.
75.4 (iii): The referee no longer has to warn a player before he hands out a misconduct for inciting an opponent into a penalty.
76.2: Faceoff locations; the rule has been dramatically rewritten. Don’t see too much that’s really new, nor anything really counterintuitive, except this: if play is stopped in the neutral zone, and the reason can’t be attributed to either team, and it’s not clear at which spot they should have the next draw? “(T)he spot that gives the home team the greatest territorial advantage in the neutral zone will be selected for the ensuing face-off.”
76.5: A player in an off-side position for a faceoff gets a warning, still, but the centerman isn’t ejected.
79.1: Reiterates the “on-ice officials” instead of just “referee” on a hand pass, and clarifies that it must either give his team an advantage, or his teammate must control the puck.
80.2: Clarifies that, if a team knocks down a puck with a high stick, the draw has to give the offending team the least advantage possible, whether it’s where it was knocked down or where it was touched up.
81.1: Contact while in pursuit of an icing “must be for the sole purpose of playing the puck and not for eliminating the opponent from playing the puck.” Penalties may result.
85.1: If a puck is shot off the goal frame and out of play, the faceoff remains in the offensive zone. Also, if the puck goes directly out of play off a faceoff, the draw remains in the same spot, regardless of who touched it last, and with no penalty.
85.5: Reiterates, puck off the goal frame, draw in the attacking zone.
86.6: Teams may have 21 instead of 20 players dressed for warmup, a byproduct of going to 18+2.
I don’t see it in here, but supposedly there are to be no promotional time outs at an icing.
One interesting tweak to the playoff format. Once again, if the fifth-place team in the West Division has a better record than the fourth-place team in the North, then W5 will get the playoff spot and N4 will be eliminated. Now, if W5 also has a better record than N3, W5 will play N2 in the first round, and N3 will play N1.