The Pickering Hockey Association wants to be sure that all our members are aware of the new head contact rules introduced by Hockey Canada. We have known they were coming but have now learned the specifics. On Tuesday August 30, Dave Wedlake from the OMHA was very kind to spend his time to reviewed the new rules with Coaches and Members of the Board.

Looking at the rule simplistically any contact made to the head, face or neck whether accidental or intentional will result in a penalty. That is the essence of the new rule, you touch someone's head and you're gone, zero tolerance. If the ref believes the contact was accidental the player will receive a 2 minute minor, if the ref believes it was intentional the player will receive a double minor, if the player is injured it could be anywhere from a major and game to a match penalty and if the ref believes there was a deliberate attempt to injure then the player will receive a match penalty.

You can read the actual rule on the Hockey Canada site at this link http://hockeycanada.ca/headcontactrule

Some examples and the resulting penalty
-player falls backward and his stick accidentally comes up and clips a player in the face - 2 minute minor
-player gives a 'face-wash' to another player - 4 minutes double minor
-a 6'5" player hits a 4'6" player 'cleanly' but makes contact with the other players head - 2 minute minor

It is strongly suggest you spend the 13 minutes required to watch the Hockey Canada video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBrOCwrHBBs ,the video attempts to provide examples of what will and will not be called.

Naturally the intent here is to protect the players and so they have taken as much ambiguity out of the rule as possible, that being said the refs and players will still have difficulty adjusting to this rule. So we must be patient, we've been through these types of rule changes in the past. Unfortunately we all know too many players that have had serious concussions or other forms of head or neck injuries. Try to think of it as protecting our children.