New USA Hockey rules for goalies

[Timberwoof]

Rule 609(f)
"A minor penalty shall be imposed on a goalkeeper who has an opportunity to play the puck with this stick prior to being pressured by an attacking player, but instead intentionally causes a stoppage of play."

Rule 612(b)
"A minor penalty shall be imposed on a goalkeeper who deliberately falls on or gathers the puck into his body,
-when his body is entirely outside the boundaries of the goal crease and the puck is behind the goal line
-or when the puck is outside the boundaries of the "goalkeeper's priveleged area,"
-or who holds or places the puck against aby part of the goal or against the boards,
-or when having an opportunity to play the puck with this stick prior to being pressured by an attacking player

So now, instead of just having the Refs mad at you for covering the puck when no one's around, they can give you a penalty for it. How much will this change your style of play?

So I invented a new drill ... though I haven't had the chance to try it out:

Woof's Goalie Playing the Puck Drill
Goalie in his crease; defenders at either side. Opposing player at center ice shoots the puck at the goalie and skates in to chase the puck. When the goalie receives the puck, one or both defensemen indicate they're open (tap the stick on the ice or shout) and the goalie passes it to that player. That player passes it back to the next waiting forward.

Comments? Suggestions?

[Steve L]

I like it. I'll have to try it with my son when we start practicing again. He got a delay of game penalty during one of his playoff games based on one of these rules. He just barely beat the skater to the puck, maybe 15 feet in front of the net and covered up. The other player stood there next to him and waited for the whistle. The ref explained that since the player didn't "pressure" him, the goalie had to play it. 15 feet in front of the net with an opposing player standing right next to him!! By the time the whistle blew, there were three players from the other team and three from our team all standing there crowding around him.

Of course, at the end of the game, my son covered up on a shot with about 8 seconds to go. The ref holds off blowing the whistle to let the clock run out and end the game. But when a player from the other team kept hacking and pushing, and broke the puck free with 2 seconds left, the goal still counted.

Sometimes you gotta just love the referees

[Snydes1987]

Does that mean that if you stop a centering pass from behind the net and hold it against the goal with your stick for a wistle you'll get a penalty? If so that is a bunch of BS. Also does this apply to all of the younger goalies that arn't very comfortable with playing the puck?

TWoof: That drill sounds great i think i might ask my coach to do that next prac.

[Timberwoof]

Well, holding the puck against the net or the boards has long been a penalty all by itself.

If he stops a centering pass, he has to cover it.

[jer35gohabs]

Those rules aren't new. We could always get delay of game for covering the puck with no one around. Refs never call it unless it is completely obvious that no one is around. Both those rules are hard to call unless the situation is extreme for example cover the puck at the blue line or on the boards behind the net, that is why they are hardly called.

[Timberwoof]

Oh, sorry. From the discussions of them on the USA Hockey web page, I gathered that they were new.

[Steve L]

Originally posted by BrickWall 33
Does that mean that if you stop a centering pass from behind the net and hold it against the goal with your stick for a wistle you'll get a penalty? If so that is a bunch of BS. Also does this apply to all of the younger goalies that arn't very comfortable with playing the puck?

TWoof: That drill sounds great i think i might ask my coach to do that next prac.

Yes it applies to younger goalies. My son was playing Mite (8 and under) this year.

And these rules were re-written for this past season, so they are new clarifications of the old rules. The refs are supposed to give far less leeway to goalies when it comes to covering the puck.

[speedbump]

I try to stay on the nice safe blue ice going out on the white ice is dangerous, so most of those don't pertain to me! Also, I try to flirt with the refs before the game and act real innocent during it so I'll get the fast whistles and forgiveness when I do something wrong! I don't think these will affect my game at all!

Actually, the only one I didn't know was a penalty was pinning the puck to the net. I've done that a few times and never gotten called or even told it wasn't something I should do. The puck has only been a few inches from the crease and usually there is a melee of sticks and skates there, too. So, maybe that's why.

[sloth2946]

Actually, they are new Timber. They were new in September 2001. USA hockey changes their rules every 3 years or so, and this was one of the changes. To paraphrase the rule's interpretation, if you have room to move the puck you are supposed to move it. You will get a warning as to the new rule, and the next time the ref might not be so easy on you, unless you are Speedbump and flirting with her whip. Prior to this rule change the goalie should try to move the puck if they could, and a delay of game penalty could be assessed if the ref deems that the goalie intentionally just stands there waiting to get a whistle, but more often then not nothing happened. In a sense, all USA Hockey did was make this rule stricter to speed up the flow of the game. My personal choice instead of trying to move it to one of my own players is I will go right at one of their players and get the whistle, but if I have time I will put it behind the goal line to one of my d-men.

[jer35gohabs]

Timber no need to be sorry. Sloth are you saying the difference in the old rule and the new rule is that the refs are pressured to make the call more?

[sloth2946]

Originally posted by jer35gohabs
Timber no need to be sorry. Sloth are you saying the difference in the old rule and the new rule is that the refs are pressured to make the call more?

Pretty much. They were given stricter guidelines to work with. And they are supposed to convey those guidelines to the goalies. I know in September and October I got a few warnings, but they have sinced fallen off. I was told by the NY State head official that this is how they would be doing it, but as usual, they are letting things go back to the way they were. The text of the rule hasn't changed in so much as the enforcement of the rule has.

[canesgoalie]

I'm gonna try that flirting with the refs, acting innocent concept...

[Timberwoof]

I don't think I could get away with flirting with the refs, even in this town.

Actually, when I had the world's worst hockey team (they lost 8 out of the last 6 games), it was easy for me to act innocent and get refs to explain stuff to me. Of course, I used that to my advantage when they were making onconsistent calls.

I think what was going on was that some of them were following these rules and others weren't. Which is interesting because that was before these rules went into effect.

Of course, now that I'll be playing for a real team ina real league, this sort of thingbecomes important.

[gophergirl]

Timberwoof,

In the USA ref seminars this summer, the purpose discussed for emphasizing the rule changes was to encourage the speed up of play and also to get goalies to learn to move the puck. USA hockey sees that as a skill that US goalies need to develop to stay competitive with other countries who develop goalies.

USA hockey does a lot of their rules around wanting to develop a certain skill set. Another example of this is that in youth hockey there is no tag up rule, the defenseman are made to skate or pass the puck out of the zone rather than just chip it out. USA hockey felt it was important for US defenseman to learn to handle the puck.

[stollie_the_goalie]

Oh boy, I'm in trouble. I hate playing the puck because somebody on the other team always hits me, takes it away, and scores and I always cover the puck against the side of the net. Not to mention coming out to the top of the circle and covering the puck to prevent a breakaway.

Bantam hockey just got harder.