The Managers Meet

PHILADELPHIA--NHL general managers will convene in the City of Brotherly Love on Wednesday, ostensibly to discuss matters of grave importance to the future of the league.

Well, not really. It's a meeting, sure, but mostly it's Gary Bettman wanting to get all the managers in to the Stanley Cup final to press the flesh with the media and generate some NHL stories.

This year, the first winner of the award without a name or a trophy, the new GM-of-the-year award, will be unveiled. The finalists are Don Maloney of Phoenix, David Poile of Nashville and Washington's George McPhee, all deserving candidates.

Bet on Maloney.

The GMs can start kicking around a few trade ideas, and it will also be a chance for some to throw a few ideas at league executives Colin Campbell and Brendan Shanahan, who will be holding a research and development camp for the league in Toronto this August.

Maple Leaf GM Brian Burke, as always, has a few ideas, including reviving an old idea of wider bluelines and a wider redline to reduce the number of offsides and two-line passes. Burke would also like to see the league investigate an icing rule used in the USHL that involves the use of hash marks on races for the puck, rather than forcing two players to skate hard all the way to the end boards.

At Wednesday's meetings, meanwhile, Burke wants to at least initiate a discussion on the "role of the rat" in the game today, or how to deal with Sean Avery-like players whose primary role is to take cheap shots, instigate trouble, take dives and generally make themselves a nuisance to one and all. 

"I don't know what to do with the rats, but I want to talk about it," said Burke.

Comments

[John Carss]

How about no-touch icing just in the last 5 minutes. That way it would be harder for teams to run out the clock & those are the most hotly contested icings anyway.

[Kevin]

Burke wants to reduce of the number of two-line passes? Didn't the NHL do that a few years ago?

[Kevin]

As for Burke's other points: The solution to the icing/injury problem is to bring back no-touch icing - as soon as the puck crosses the red line, the whistle goes. No need to race back to it. If the league's not interested in that, then get rid of the crapezoid (no, it's not a spelling mistake) and let the goalies play the puck behind the net. As for getting rid of the "rats", use the weapons at the refs disposal: unsportsmanlike penalties and misconducts. After a few misconducts and suspensions for cheap shots, most of them will clean their game. Maybe not Avery, but most of them - even OV.

[DamienCox]

Damien here. . .gonna help out a few folks here. . .those who posted comments that suggested the two-line pass was 'outlawed" a few years ago. . .I won't post your comments because you'd look silly. . .even with the red line out for two-line passes. you can still make an illegal two-line pass from behind your end line to beyond the blueline, or from inside your blueline to across the enemy blueline. . .that's the idea Burke is dealing with.

[sum1]

I've always thought, if a team iced the puck 3 times in a row without the other team icing it, it should be a delay of game penalty. That would really knock down the number of icing calls per game.

[WastedPotential]

Love the no touch icing. A race for hashmarks could still be dangerous. If the offensive player wins the race then the puck is still live and therefore would require a high speed chase and contact to win control of the puck.

I'd like to see icings return to the penalty kill including the rules on line changes. Why does the NHL insist on making it so easy to kill penalties?

And I'd like to see the NHL end this consistent slide back to the hooking, holding and interference we saw before the lockout. This has been happening since the first half of the current season.

P.S. Two line offsides are still just longer offensive zone blueline offsides. They limit nothing more than a neutral line to offensive zone blueline offsides. I understand completely why people jump all over that statement. And how many of these offsides do we see in a season? A couple maybe.

[other mark]

What is the one true sign that summer has arrived? Is it trips to the lake? No. Is is that cool beer out on the back deck? No. It's talk of changing the rules in the NHL. What a bunch of hot air. The only thing that needs to change is that the referees need to start calling certain things like: charging, hitting from behind, boarding, unsportsmanlike conduct. Enough already with the rule changes. You don't see baseball changing rules every year! (although, I agree with Kevin, the crapezoid should be tossed).

[baac]

Call the GM award the Scotty Bowman award. Is there a bigger builder in modern hockey?