The NHL has tweaked its rule on-icing and has refrained from going with a no touch icing rule. Instead it has declared: "Any contact between opposing players while pursuing the puck on an icing must be for the sole purpose of playing the puck and not for eliminating the opponent from playing the puck. Unnecessary or dangerous contact could result in penalties being assessed to the offending player."
This rule still allows for interpretation of what unnecessary or dangerous contact is. All this really does is give referees a bit more encouragement to call a penalty in an icing situation. This may only put a minor dent in the risk to injury on this play.
The NHL will continue to move at a glacial pace on this and it will prove not to be an appropriate measure. Given the frequency with which the debate heats up we will likely see this rule around for a good 10 years before they finally go to no-touch.
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