New rules: darks-at-home AHL BoG meeting wrap

Much to chew on. I’m still technically on vacation, so please chew all you’d like in the comments. To bullet-point:

  • With Portland gone, the East Atlantic Division will be a seven-team division. So too will be the North. The two Western Conference divisions will both have eight teams. With things even, there’s no more twitchy need for the crossover rule. Top four in the division make it. Period.
  • Fights off a draw now bring a game misconduct. A player who has fought 10 times (not counting times when his opponent instigated) will start receiving suspensions. Details in the link.
  • No time out after an icing. (Using the time out seemed to be enough of a strategy point to me, but hey.)
  • No more dry scrape. They’ll just do the promo-timeout shoveling.
  • And obviously most importantly, lights at home until Christmas, darks at home afterward. Not to get all theological, but looks like Jesus comes to save us once again.
Michael Fornabaio