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Home | Sports | Minnesota Wild

NHL should adopt no-touch icing

Marcio Jose Sanchez, Associated Press

Kurtis Foster's injury has led to calls for no-touch icing in the National Hockey League.

Kurtis Foster's broken leg is the latest serious injury that could have been avoided. The NHL needs a rule change.

By MICHAEL RUSSO, Star Tribune

Last update: March 23, 2008 - 12:39 AM

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WILD WEEK IN REVIEW

Record: 2-1-1

• The week was spoiled by defenseman Kurtis Foster's season-ending broken femur. That occurred Wednesday in San Jose, where Marian Gaborik twice rallied the Wild from one-goal, third-period deficits, the last with 28.7 seconds left en route to a 4-3 shootout loss. The Wild won 2-1 at Vancouver on Friday but lost 5-4 at Calgary on Saturday.

STAR TRIBUNE'S STAR OF THE WEEK: Brent Burns, defenseman

• The rising defenseman continues to soar, highlighted by his one-goal, one-assist, six-hit performance Monday for the Wild against the Avalanche.

THIS WEEK: three games

Monday: at Edmonton, 8:30 p.m.; Wednesday: vs. Edmonton, 7 p.m.; Friday: vs. Vancouver, 7 p.m.

• The week opens with a home-and-home series against Edmonton, and in the past three years, the Wild has crushed the Oilers like no other opponent. Since a 3-0 victory Feb. 13, 2004, the Wild is 17-5-1 against the Oilers, outscoring them 75-42. This includes an 8-2-1 mark in Edmonton and 4-1-1 record this season.

THE QUOTE

"Let’s face it: this is our playoff run. We’re in playoff mode right now because we have to be." — Left winger Brian Rolston after the Wild’s victory over Colorado.

MICHAEL RUSSO

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When you watch Torrey Mitchell play, you admire him for his great wheels and hustle.

But those two elements added up to a horrific scene Wednesday in San Jose, and maybe the only way to prevent it from happening again is to insert the whistle that will stop a whistle-to-whistle player such as Mitchell from pursuing a vulnerable defenseman.

Mitchell's hit on Wild defenseman Kurtis Foster wasn't dirty, although it was reckless. The Sharks forward was trying to outrace Foster for an icing, but instead of reaching for the puck, Mitchell pushed the high-flying Foster as he crossed the goal line.

The result was a violent collision with the wall, a broken femur, six hours of surgery and months of rehab for Foster.

But the good news is Foster will be able to walk again. This story could have been a lot more tragic, which is why the age-old debate of no-touch icing has resurfaced.

In the past two decades, there have been several major injuries, including Calgary's Al MacInnis dislocating his hip, Dallas' Mark Tinordi breaking his femur, Edmonton's Marty Reasoner damaging his knee and foot, San Jose's Marco Sturm dislocating his ankle and breaking his leg and Florida's Mike Wilson dislocating his shoulder and breaking his arm.

In 1996, the NHL career of Washington's Pat Peake ended in a race for the puck with Pittsburgh's J.J. Daigneault. His heel shattered in 12 places. Peake, a former first-rounder, was 24.

The icing debate is on the agenda at every general managers meeting: Should the NHL adopt the widely-used rule where icing is whistled the second the puck crosses the goal line, or should the NHL continue to promote high-speed races to negate icings?

At every meeting, the NHL emerges with the same rule.

"If this isn't a perfect reason to cut it out and just go to regular icing, I don't know what it is," Wild defenseman Sean Hill said. "Nothing good comes of it, in my view. I haven't heard any [players] who think it's a great part of the game."

Puck races for icings do seem like a recipe for disaster -- scrambling, fast-skating defensemen with their backs toward oncoming forwards with nothing but wall and glass in front of them. Is it worth it?

"How often do you see a forward beat it out, and then how often do you see anything really come of it?" Wild veteran Mark Parrish said. "Rarely does it result in a scoring chance, a goal or even a solid forechecking or cycling shift."

And that's why so many, including Sharks coach Ron Wilson, want to adopt no-touch icing.

"We shouldn't have those kinds of car wrecks," Wilson said. "For all the times you might have somebody beat a guy to a puck on an icing, it doesn't ever offset a situation where two guys collide and somebody gets hurt."

Still, there are some defensemen, such as Vancouver's Willie Mitchell and the Wild's Keith Carney, who say races for icings are an exciting part of the game as long as linesmen are loud when they wave off icings and referees punish careless, reckless or dirty pursuers.

"It's a dangerous play, but this is a violent game and those things can happen," Edmonton coach Craig MacTavish said.

Still, if the people fascinated with this type of puck pursuit actually heard the deafening, horrifying sound of Foster hitting that wall Wednesday, maybe they'd change their stance.

"Two guys going full-speed, racing for the puck, so much of that can go wrong," Hill said. "Rarely does it change the outcome of a game if somebody beats out an icing, but it can change the outcome of somebody's life."

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