October 01, 2011

Oilers' Fedun Breaks Leg on Icing Play: Edmonton defenseman Taylor Fedun suffered a complex leg fracture Friday crashing into the end boards after getting tangled up on an icing play with the stick of Minnesota Wild left wing Eric Nystrom. "If they're not going to get rid of the rule with no-touch icing, they've got to do something about the guys coming in there recklessly," said Fedun's teammate Darcy Hordichuk.

posted by rcade to hockey at 12:34 PM - 5 comments

I agree with Darcy Hordichuk - and more than a few others who say the same. The new (last year) collegiate rule would be a good option in my (exalted) opinion. The call is made when the puck crosses the line between the face off dots in the defensive zone. If the defensive player is in position to reach the puck before the offensive player, then the icing is called, and play stops before anyone gets too close to the end boards. If the offensive player is in position to reach the puck before a defender, then it is play on, no icing. In the video above, the icing would have been called as the puck passed the face off dots, since the defender was clearly in position to get to the puck first. Whistle blows well before contact, correct call is made, and Taylor Fedun is not injured.

posted by Howard_T at 01:52 PM on October 01, 2011

Just go with no-touch icing.

It's safer, and it penalizes teams that can't make a connecting pass or just want to dump the puck without taking into account location on the ice.

Icing faceoffs lead to more chances for a goal (tired team in defensive zone), and that's what everyone's complaining about, right? The lack of scoring?

posted by grum@work at 02:16 PM on October 01, 2011

I feel bad for Nystrom. He's been taking a lot of grief for this on Twitter, but he didn't really do anything wrong. It certainly wasn't a dirty play, just a hustle play gone wrong. The rule definitely needs to be changed, one way or another.

posted by TheQatarian at 02:37 PM on October 01, 2011

The rule definitely needs to be changed

This.

Now.

posted by tommybiden at 02:52 PM on October 01, 2011

I guess a broken femur every 3 years or so is acceptable to the NHL. Oddly enough, the last one was also related the the MN Wild. Kurtis Foster's broken Femur -- video . The second paragraph of the article is most telling... "NHL officials could spend that long debating whether to enact 'no-touch icing' to eliminate the possibility of catastrophic injuries on races for the puck." Is three years too long to debate? Just put the rule in and move on.

posted by jjohn24680 at 05:36 PM on October 01, 2011

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