Faceoff Changes Highlight Ice Hockey Rules Revisions for 2009-10

INDIANAPOLIS, IN - In an effort to simplify the game for coaches, players and officials, four rules addressing faceoffs were among nine changes approved by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Ice Hockey Rules Committee at its April 26-27 meeting in Indianapolis. The rules changes subsequently were approved by the NFHS Board of Directors.

Rule 6-12-1 now begins with the sentence "All faceoffs must be conducted on one of the nine (9) faceoff spots located on the rink."

Under Rule 6-12 as previously written, faceoffs could have occurred "...at many locations on the ice 15 feet from the boards, along an imaginary line between the end zone faceoff spots."

"The committee felt that this revision will help simplify the game for everyone," said Rick Majerus, chairperson of the NFHS Ice Hockey Rules Committee. "By making this change, the rule is now very specific regarding where faceoffs can occur."

The committee felt that penalties for puck-handling should be consistent with those for high-sticking. As such, the penalties for Rules 6-17-1 and 6-17-3 have been changed from "Faceoff" to "Faceoff at the defensive zone faceoff spot of the offending team."

"The former puck-handling penalties were ‘Faceoff,' and the high-sticking penalties are ‘Faceoff at the defensive zone faceoff spot of the offending team,'" Majerus said. "Since the committee felt the penalties for both offenses should be the same, the penalties in Rules 6-17-1 and 6-17-3 (puck-handling) are now the same as those in Rule 6-18, which deals with high-sticking."

In an effort to cut down penalties and to make the high school rules consistent with those of the other national governing bodies, the committee changed the faceoff location after a penalty is assessed to take place at the defensive zone faceoff spot of the offending team. All such references to this in Rule 6-12 (Faceoffs) have been rewritten to reflect this revision.

As a means of helping readers more easily locate rules pertaining to minor penalties that involve team captains, the copy in Rule 2-2-6 has been replicated in Rule 4-2-8.

Rule 2-2 addresses "Team Captains" and Rule 4-2 addresses "Minor Penalties." Since Rule 2-2-6 ("When rules indicate ‘captain's choice of players' for serving the penalty, the captain must select a player who was on the ice when the infraction occurred.") is a rule that addresses both minor penalties and team captains, it is now replicated in the "Minor Penalties" section. In that manner, readers will now find it referenced in both locations within the rules book.

Rule 4-3-2 was revised to replace the penalty "A player (captain's choice of players)" with "A player and an additional player."

"Prior to last year, ‘captain's choice' meant any player," Majerus said. "Last year's revision was a blanket change that stipulated that any place the rules book says ‘captain's choice,' the player had to come from the ice. In this particular situation, the player does not need to come from the ice. As such, it should not read ‘captain's choice of players.'"

In an effort to make NFHS rules consistent with other national governing bodies' and to conform with manufacturers' current dimensions, the measurements of the goalkeeper's leg pads, goalkeeper's gloves and goalkeeper's catching glove have been downsized.

According to Rule 3-3-2, the goalkeeper's leg pads currently "... shall not be wider than 12 inches (30.48 cm) each." The new rule states "... shall not be wider than 11 inches (27.94 cm) each, nor longer than 38 inches (96.52 cm)."

Rule 3-3-3 currently stipulates that "Protective padding attached to the back or forming a part of the goalkeeper's gloves shall not exceed 9 inches (22.86 cm) in width at any point, nor shall it exceed 17 inches (43.17 cm) in length. Protective padding attached to the back or forming part of the goalkeeper's catching glove shall not exceed 9 inches (22.86 cm) in width at any point, nor shall it exceed 17 inches (43.17 cm) in length."

The revised rule now stipulates that the width of the goalkeeper's blocking glove shall not exceed 8 inches (20.32 cm), nor shall it exceed 15 inches (38.1 cm) in length. The rule further stipulates that the catching glove shall have a maximum circumference of 45 inches (114.3 cm), and the wrist cuff shall not exceed 4 inches (10.16 cm) in width, nor more than 8 inches (20.32 cm) in height.

The words "with face masks" were added to Rule 3-4-8 so that it now reads "All players are required to wear helmets with face masks while in the players' or penalty box."

This rule was revised at a previous rules committee meeting. The aforementioned verbiage regarding face masks (while possibly implied or understood) was inadvertently left out at that time. This revision will now specifically state that those helmets will have face masks.