IIHF adds a "late hit" penalty

[CarltonTheBear]

https://twitter.com/IIHFHockey/status/1076156040553660416

This is going to be... interesting. I don't really watch WJC hockey anymore but that first example happened probably about 153 times a game in the Canada ones from 5-10 years ago.

 

[Guilt Trip]

The first, Minor penalty is a horrible move. That wasn't even .5 of a second. The checker was almost on top of him when he got rid of the puck. I guess they're trying to eliminate body checking from the game. Players will see a guy coming and dump it absolutely last second to draw a penalty. Just like the way players turn their backs to opponents against the boards.

 

[Kin]

What this mainly seems to do is shift the responsibility for avoiding hits from the players getting hit to the player throwing the hit. A change like this was probably unavoidable, no pun intended.

 

[OldTimeHockey]

So I guess a coaches new motto is "Don't finish your check!"

The only issue I can see with the first one is the player throwing the hit actually had to change his direction to hit the player after he released the puck. If he would of kept in his original direction he would of skated right by him.

 

[hockeyfan1]

Too many rules for these late hits.  Should have just assessed a major penalty in the case of no injury, and a game misconduct - match penalty in the case of injury.

Clear defining with less rule clutter will spread the message more appropriately.

The IIHF is obviously increasing the flow & motion of the game with these rules.  If it's a method of discouragement (to prevent serious ir even minor injury), then it should serve itself well.  We'll see.