If the league is supposedly serious (hah!) about increasing scoring, then instead of hearing the same silly arguments about how players should be allowed to kick in a puck and have it count (although I think the determining factor should be if the blade maintains contact with the ice at all times since they have a hard time figuring out what a distinct kicking motion is sometimes), why not toss the rules about a puck not being a legal goal if it is directed in by a high stick?  Often the player is isolated and rarely moving quickly, so it isn’t as though anyone else is going to get hit in the face with his stick, it requires no less skill or coordination than tipping a puck below the crossbar does, and sometimes it’s hard to judge from the available camera angles, so they could reduce the time spent trying to figure out how high a stick was over the ice.

It makes more sense than telling players to go ahead and kick at a puck in a goal mouth scramble.

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 01/01/10 at 09:59 AM ET

I think telling them all to start swinging their sticks head-high at pucks that are up in the air is a bad idea.  I’m not sure how you think the players are usually isolated when playing around the net trying to score.

the problem here is what you said about the available camera angles.  it’s another example of why this league is a joke run by morons.  all you have to do is put a couple little cameras right at the same height as the crossbar, set them up level looking out over the ice, and turn them on to record the whole game.  then if there’s something to look at, it gives you EXACTLY the angle you need on ANY disputed goal, to see how high the player’s stick is.

it’s just like the top-down view that is slightly off from being even with the goal line.  WHY?!  make it even so you can tell if the puck crossed or not.  hell, put a camera IN THE CROSSBAR pointing STRAIGHT DOWN.

why do such simple, cheap, common sense solutions escape those running this league?

[/rant]

Posted by PaulinMiamiBeach on 01/01/10 at 11:10 AM ET

I think telling them all to start swinging their sticks head-high at pucks that are up in the air is a bad idea.  I’m not sure how you think the players are usually isolated when playing around the net trying to score.

In that situation it’s easy to tell if the stick is high because the crossbar is right there.  I was thinking more of the situation where a player is out ten or fifteen feet from the net, a high shot comes from a ways out, and he deflects it into the net - at which point the men in charge spend ten minutes trying to figure out if the stick was higher than the crossbar when it made contact with the puck, despite the fact that they can’t see squat with the perspective of the shots they have to look at.

I doubt they will be swinging their sticks around the heads all that much - high-sticking an opponent, even inadvertently, is still going to be a penalty, and physics tells me that a puck is going to drop to the ice eventually under the influence of gravity, so the odds are better than a stick closer to the ice is more likely to actually make contact with a puck.  It’s not common for a player to knock a puck out of the air into the net, and I think if he is either lucky enough or good enough to do so, he should get a goal for his efforts.

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 01/01/10 at 11:25 AM ET

I’m glad Leino scored, but that definitely looked like a high stick. Whatever, we haven’t much go our way this season. One call.

Posted by Osrt on 01/01/10 at 01:22 PM ET

I watched the replay of the game today. Ken and Mick showed the replay a few times from the blue line angle and it was not a high stick. The tip in was well below the crossbar.

Lets Go Red Wings!!!!!

Posted by Kate from Pa.-made in Detroit on 01/01/10 at 04:01 PM ET

I was at the game (it was awesome) and that goal was so quick and the in-arena replay so slow, I’m only just now getting to see what the flap is about. The way Dater describes it on his article today, you’d think Leino’s stick was absolutely perpendicular to the ice surface and he was on his tip toes.

Posted by redxblack from Akron Ohio on 01/01/10 at 05:34 PM ET