The Phantom Shove

The NHL Board of Governors voted yesterday to "amend" the icing rules by doing pretty much nothing at all:

A change to Rule 81.1 ("Icing") states that "Any contact between opposing players while pursuing the puck on an icing must be for the sole purpose of playing the puck and not for eliminating the opponent from playing the puck. Unnecessary or dangerous contact could result in penalties being assessed to the offending player."

Breathtaking. So, if you "eliminate the opponent from playing the puck", that's a penalty? That's called interference you jackasses. Remember, you said you were going to start calling it a couple of years ago? Forgot already?

Besides, that amendment is like putting a wig on a Chris Pronger turd. The only way to protect the NHL's players is no-touch icing, and that's that.

This rule was largely brought up because of the Kurtis Foster - Torrey Mitchell incident from a few months back. Check it out:



Unfortunate accident. Mitchell was really shaken up after it - he's not a dirty player. So then why did Greg Wyshynski call it a "shove"?

Watching it again, it sure does look bad. Mitchell's arms are up and he make a distinct shoving motion. Foster collapses like a rag doll, Torrey gets sent to the sin bin for tripping, and no one wins in this situation.

But look closer. Both Foster and Mitchell break full speed for the puck. Foster has the inside track so he gets there first, but we all know Mitchell is a cannonball, so he's got loads of speed after just a short charge. So we've got Foster at full speed getting to the puck (and boards) first, with Mitchell accelerating even faster to the same location. Mitchell realizes he can't make it there in time, so he gets his hands up to buffer the coming impact with Foster.

Things go awry when the two meet up. Mitchell's right skate accidentally catches Foster's right skate. This causes Foster to go down, Mitchell's hands to go forward, and we all know what happens from there.

Did Mitchell deserve 2 for tripping? Yes. It wasn't intentional but he did take out his skates. Was it a dirty play? No. An accidental trip from a clean player just makes more sense than a vicious shove from behind in this case. Save your pitchforks and torches for Pronger or Bertuzzi.