NHL, Get Rid of Touch Icing Now!
Newsflash touch icing is dangerous! The powers that be in the NHL believe it is an exciting play and is a good way for “hustle guys” to show partly why they are so valuable. It matters not what the argument is the bottom line remains the same, touch icing gets a lot of players seriously injured and one too many times puts players in harm’s way even if they do not end up suffering a long-term injury. If you watch Coach’s Corner (with Ron MacLean and Don Cherry) at cbcsports.ca from November 15th there are a few videos put together from various moments over the years where guys have been hurt from touch icing. Overall the game is very well played and has many exciting moments, so much so that taking away touch icing would not take anything away from the game. Most other levels of hockey have automatic icing (once it crosses the goal line) and it hardly takes away from the excitement of those games. In Europe they had touch icing until years ago when somebody died as a result of an injury suffered from a touch icing play. The NHL needs to be proactive rather than reactive so that nobody suffers a career ending injury or is killed.
