Swedish Elite League to allow kicking in pucks

[Rylant]

I heard on the radio today that the Swedish elite league is going to allow kicking the puck into the net next year, as long as your skate stays on the ice. Personally, I think this is a bad idea. You have razor blades attached to the bottom of your feet, and now you're encouraging people to swing wildly at the puck, while goaltenders are potentially scrambling along the ice? I think you're opening up the possibility of serious injuries. What do you people think?

Rylant

[doulos]

Diving - check
Horrible reffing - check
Intentionally losing games - check

Now throw in kicking the object in the net...

So basically the SEL just finalized their membership with FIFA?

[Big Ev]

I heard on the radio today that the Swedish elite league is going to allow kicking the puck into the net next year, as long as your skate stays on the ice. Personally, I think this is a bad idea. You have razor blades attached to the bottom of your feet, and now you're encouraging people to swing wildly at the puck, while goaltenders are potentially scrambling along the ice? I think you're opening up the possibility of serious injuries. What do you people think?

Rylant

I don't see it as an issue as I don't think players will start purposely trying to kick pucks in. I think you'll only get the odd kick-in goal on instinct. They've been playing with a stick for so long that they won't actually think about kicking it in while they are on the ice. They are basically psychologically attached to their sticks.

I don't like the change but they have put it in to make it easier on video review calls.

also apparently they have already tested it out in pre-season games, so I guess it was't an issue

[Big Ev]

Diving - check
Horrible reffing - check
Intentionally losing games - check

Have you ever seen an SEL game?

Regardless, you could say the same things about the NHL.

...and I think you're referring to international play with that third one.

[jff100]

...allow kicking the puck into the net next year, as long as your skate stays on the ice.

I like this idea, the main reason being that it will help eliminate the controversy regarding what constitutes a "kicking motion". Having a "skate on the ice" is much more well-defined, and it shouldn't be dangerous if the skate doesn't leave the ice.

[Dakkster]

Have you ever seen an SEL game?

Regardless, you could say the same things about the NHL.

...and I think you're referring to international play with that third one.

He's just being a ****** and trolling, as usual.

[Dakkster]

I like this idea, the main reason being that it will help eliminate the controversy regarding what constitutes a "kicking motion". Having a "skate on the ice" is much more well-defined, and it shouldn't be dangerous if the skate doesn't leave the ice.

Yeah, I agree. It's not like players will have their legs flailing all over the place because of this and it gets more goals. Great.

[dodospice]

I heard on the radio today that the Swedish elite league is going to allow kicking the puck into the net next year, as long as your skate stays on the ice. Personally, I think this is a bad idea. You have razor blades attached to the bottom of your feet, and now you're encouraging people to swing wildly at the puck, while goaltenders are potentially scrambling along the ice? I think you're opening up the possibility of serious injuries. What do you people think?

Rylant

Like many others have stated I don't think they will be kicking wildly at the puck in the hopes of scoring but if its near the net and their stick is tied up you might see the odd kick and with the skate on the ice rule it should be an effective way to enforce it.

[doulos]

Have you ever seen an SEL game?

Regardless, you could say the same things about the NHL.

...and I think you're referring to international play with that third one.

I watched quite a few last season following a certain Oiler prospect.

However, the' intentionally losing games' completely disgusted me and was an integral part of the late regular season between teams that wanted better matchups. It was pretty pathetic to watch.

Overall I liked the quality of hockey (minus the reffing which was worse than jr hockey from the 6-7 games I watched and at points was clearly biased towards specific teams) I was watching but some of things that make the SEL unique are pretty sad to watch.

I think to assume that allowing a new way to score won't actually be exploited by players is incredibly naive and completely flies in the face of sporting history.

If it's allowed then players will use it to their advantage as much as possible.

The rule makes no sense at all. The sort isn't soccer and shouldn't be treated like it is considering the players are wearing weapons on their feet.

[doulos]

He's just being a ****** and trolling, as usual.

Not trolling, but the SEL does some very strange things and this is one of them.

[One87]

I heard on the radio today that the Swedish elite league is going to allow kicking the puck into the net next year, as long as your skate stays on the ice. Personally, I think this is a bad idea. You have razor blades attached to the bottom of your feet, and now you're encouraging people to swing wildly at the puck, while goaltenders are potentially scrambling along the ice? I think you're opening up the possibility of serious injuries. What do you people think?

Rylant

Wait until they allow players to pick pucks up and throw them in by hand.

[Dakkster]

I watched quite a few last season following a certain Oiler prospect.

However, the' intentionally losing games' completely disgusted me and was an integral part of the late regular season between teams that wanted better matchups. It was pretty pathetic to watch.

Overall I liked the quality of hockey (minus the reffing which was worse than jr hockey from the 6-7 games I watched and at points was clearly biased towards specific teams) I was watching but some of things that make the SEL unique are pretty sad to watch.

I think to assume that allowing a new way to score won't actually be exploited by players is incredibly naive and completely flies in the face of sporting history.

If it's allowed then players will use it to their advantage as much as possible.

The rule makes no sense at all. The sort isn't soccer and shouldn't be treated like it is considering the players are wearing weapons on their feet.

What the hell are you talking about? Biggest rolleyes emoticon possible to this post. Just embarrassing. It's obvious you take every single shot you possibly can to put down anything Swedish. If that's because you have some obsession with me or whatever, I don't know, but the trolling is getting pretty old at this point.

[newfcollins]

In the NHL, I see a lot of goals called back because of a kicking motion. And that's with kicking motions not being allowed. I believe that if you allowed those goals to count, you'd have way more guys intentionally trying it, and you'd see an increase in scoring.

It will be interesting to see what impact this has on prospects and rookies after playing in Sweden. If a kid gets 20 goals, but five of them were kicked in, that's 25% of his total. I could see more young guys from Sweden struggling in the NHL as it gives them something else to adjust to.

I'm guessing NHL scouts would also start keeping track of what percentage of a player's goals were kicked in. You know there would be a couple of guys who would end up having a knack for it, or would end up with one of those seasons where it seems like everything they touch with their skate goes in.

[Big Ev]

I would bet anybody that the amount of "kicked in" goals will be very very low even with this rule. No player is going out there with the intention to kick, that's what their stick is for (and it's more effective).

Young players and prospects have been playing their whole lives without this rule so it won't affect their game or potential NHL game. The rest of Swedish hockey appears to not have this rule, so it's something new to them that they probably won't een think about.

[Rylant]

There is no doubt that it will be rare. However, for me, as I have pointed out, this is a safety concern, not a "game integrity" concern. Yes, players are of the mindset that they shouldn't be kicking at the puck. However, if the rule in this league changes (I see very little chance that this will happen in the NHL), players will adapt, and if they have their stick tied up, they WILL LEARN to take swings with their skates. I am not saying that people will be cut by skates every game, but ALL hockey fans remember the injuries suffered by Hall, Salming, Zednik and Malarchuk. If you take a situation where players are on the ice and other players may be intentionally swinging their legs to kick at pucks, you have the potential for disaster. If the chance for an injury goes up, even slightly, I am completely opposed because of the possibility of life threatening injuries. I hope that I am wrong and that it never happens, but the very first time that somebody gets cut by somebody swinging their skate at a puck to intentionally try to kick it into the net, people will start to realize that this might not be such a good idea...

Rylant