When the NHL changed their rules on obstruction and interference a few years ago, women’s hockey followed suit. While the change in the men’s game has been a huge success, it has done more to hurt female hockey than to help it.

Here are the results I have seen from the rule changes in women’s hockey:

1) There is a lot less stickwork than there used to be.

This may be a good or bad thing depending on whether you are on the giving or receiving end of a hook/slash/hold. While I believe that this rule change was great for the NHL and really opened up the game, I think it as left girls and women with no way to slow down their opponents. While the men can still use body-checking to slow down the opposition, the women are left with no options.

Female hockey players can still use body contact along the boards to separate the opponent from the puck, but the rule change has made it illegal to push players off the puck in open ice. In my opinion, the rule changes have opened up the game a bit too much, to the point where it has almost become a “no touching” version of the men’s game.

2) There are a lot more dangerous incidences of contact happening in front of the net and along the boards.

I was at a girls hockey game this weekend and paid close attention to what happened in front of the net when there was a battle for a loose puck. It was absolute chaos and extremely dangerous for all players involved.

In the past, defensemen could move players away from the front of the net even before the puck got there. Now they can’t touch anyone until the puck arrives, and once it does, there is only so much they can do to move the attacking player. The result is that any attacking player who chooses to drive the oppositions’ net has free reign. This not only leaves the defensemen powerless to stop them, but leaves the goalies extremely vulnerable. It is no coincidence that I have seen significantly more goalies getting “run” since the rule changes.

Instead of protecting themselves from the incidental and intentional contact in front of the net and along the boards, players are “fishing” for the puck with their heads down. Unfortunately, what I am starting to see more and more is two girls skating for the same puck with their heads down and running into each other at full speed. Whereas before they might have worried about being pushed around before getting to the puck, they now know that type of contact will get called as an interference penalty. When players become completely “puck focused” instead of being aware of the other players battling for that same puck around them, you end up with more injuries instead of less.

The purpose of the rule changes in the NHL was to speed up the game and make it more exciting for the fans. And I believe that they have accomplished that goal. But the rule changes have made the female game unnecessarily challenging for players in the defensive zone and more dangerous for players all over the ice.

While changing the rules back to how they used to be for the women is the most complicated and controversial solution, I think it might make the game safer for younger players who might not yet have mastered how to gain and keep body position on their opposition in the open ice.

The reality is that the rules won’t change any time soon (if at all) and coaches have a responsibility to do everything they can to help players protect themselves in front of the net and along the boards by teaching them proper defensive body positioning and how to take contact properly.

Until that happens on a more widespread level, I will continue to cringe every time I watch my players play and see two (or more) players skating for a loose puck in front of the net at full speed with their heads down.

Keep your head up, work hard and dream BIG.

~ Coach Kim