SLBAM: One minute with the new rules, please.

What’s up gang. I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but I’m currently in Orlando, my first time here.

I had a great time on Thursday at Disney Spring. We’re spending the week here with three games in four days against Orlando. It’s funny, because five years ago, I had an interview to become an assistant coach.

Anyway, I’d like to take this opportunity to write my article for the week.

For my part, I don’t put Bedard in the same line as the names you mentioned right away, simply because he’s still young and in his first year.

On the other hand, seeing Celebrini go to NCAA and with Team Canada, we can easily see why he’s going to be good and why he made Team Canada, and finished as the team’s leading scorer.

For Matthews, we’re talking about a player who has a chance of breaking the NHL record for most goals, as he’s on track to do so, statistically speaking. McDavid is in a class of his own. I mentioned last week that he was going to finish first in scoring this season, and with at least a 15-point lead.

But as for Celebrini, we’ll see with time. I can’t tell you right now what he’s going to look like in the NHL. As we saw with Hughes, for example, he needed 2-3 seasons before really establishing himself.

Thank you and happy new year to you too. We adapt to our opponents with the “prescout” for matches. But our structure or foundation doesn’t necessarily change with X player in the line-up or not.

If you go back to a few weeks ago when we had five forwards who were with Wilkes, our playbook was the same or almost the same. For example, a failure before 2-1-2 had become a 1-2-2. But we can make that adjustment even with a full line-up.

We mostly teach our identity and then emphasize our strengths to exploit the opponent’s weakness. By doing so, we always keep the same mentality and improve our strengths.

And at some point, a zone exit is still a zone exit, how to receive a rush. So we’re going to see more adjustment against an opponent than against our line-up.

I love women’s hockey, I’ve worked with women’s hockey and I wish women’s hockey and the new league the best of luck and success. But unfortunately, no I haven’t followed the start of the PWHL season and I don’t expect to do so in the near future.

Looking at our schedule, we’re more than busy and I’ve got a lot on my plate with my own team. I hardly watch any NHL or LAH games, so unfortunately I take my time and put it elsewhere.

However, I do watch the highlights on social networks, because I’m curious.

To find out if the league is going to continue or not. We’ve seen in the past how difficult women’s leagues can be to manage for a million reasons. There have always been several women’s leagues that wanted to have both in the same place.

Are we going to see the same thing with the PWHL? I think if it doesn’t work the way the girls want it to, I wouldn’t be surprised to see another league spring up and want to compete.

It’s a bit like history repeating itself and why there hasn’t been an association with the NHL in the past and why the PWHL had to buy its league to ensure it had control.

That’s a great thing, because PWHL has bought a startup and can now fix it in its own way. But I sincerely wish the girls all the best. They have an excellent product that deserves to be appreciated.

They just need to find a way to keep riding the wave for as long as possible. I actually wrote to Danièle Sauvageau before their first game to wish her good luck. So yes, I’ve still got my eye on it.

I have a huge problem with this sincerely. And with other things I’ll come back to later.

The rule that if you score a short-handed goal, you no longer get a penalty is not a first in the hockey world. If we’re talking about women’s hockey or North America, no problem.

But I did an article before the summer on the changes made by the CHL, which cancelled the penalty if the team scored a goal, in order to favor the offending team and we’re seeing more and more short-handed goals.

So far, people in Europe love it. Even when I was in the KHL, we talked about it, and they’re likely to do so again. So to say it’s a first. I’m having a hard time.

When the LHPS came into being, you weren’t allowed to take clears when you were short-handed, and the same thing happened with Hockey USA. It’s a question of not taking away rules to favor the offending team. I don’t hate that idea at all.

The new CHL rules were this: if a goal is scored on a shorthanded play, the penalty is over.

The second rule being that if the penalty is a full two minutes, the power play doesn’t stop after a goal, but only after the full two minutes.

The other rule, and I love this one. We saw it with Team USA against Sweden in the final. If the referee has a penalty in his arm, the team that would normally go on the power play removes its goaltender and sends a sixth skater onto the ice.

Normally, if the team counts when the referee has a penalty in his arm, the penalty is cancelled, but the new rule means that the penalty still takes place.

So there are several new features in the world of hockey in Europe, like face-offs at the start of the period on the power play in the KHL. You just have to be a fan of Europe to see the new rules.

That’s where I’m having a bit of trouble too, because the PWHL is a new official league, everything is new and everything is a first and everything is a record.

It’s a bit normal, because it’s new, but it’s not all legendary either, because there have been women’s professional leagues before (where I refused to coach in the old days) that are put behind like they never existed.

I understand that it needs as much attention as possible, but I think there’s plenty of material in this beautiful league to put the emphasis on other things, quite simply.

Extension

The dressing room was the place to be on tonight’s panel. pic.twitter.com/zqpfHg3xdH

– Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) January 4, 2024

I’m curious, what are your comments on this? On first listen, I’m torn between everyone, to be honest. As far as I’m concerned, you have to remember that hockey changes completely once you get to the playoffs and becomes an even more physical and, above all, more violent sport.

You only have to get behind an ECHL or LAH bench to understand that “intimidation” is still there. And I put the word in quotation marks, because those are the words used in the video.

But for me, it’s not intimidation at all, it’s wanting to disturb the opponent and get inside his head.

Where I lose Jennifer is when she talks about if it was my child. I’m a parent of four children, and if my child is playing in the NHL at 23, for example, and something like this happens, I’m not going to be able to help him.

I’m not going to go out on the ice and tell him to go home and find a new career. We’re talking about adults, and they’ll sort it out between themselves. If we’re talking about my 10-year-old on the ice, yes, I’m going to get involved, just like any other situation in a parent’s life.

There’s a big difference as far as I’m concerned, and that’s where I disagree.

The other reality is that I always like to know the context, because without context, we can imagine anything. Now, you may not have seen it, but Ryan Hartman has come out publicly about the incident and we’re a long way from what the media has been talking about.

Nick Foligno makes Brendan Smith answer for his hit that injured Connor Bedard pic.twitter.com/olkWVSR1p6

– Gino Hard (@GinoHard_) January 6, 2024

We agree that, unfortunately, the player must have been expecting something to happen too if that’s the case. So what do you think? I’ll leave you with this short video. A little incident that took place following the check on Connor Bedard. Hard to say this doesn’t belong here anymore…

A huge thank you for your questions and we’ll see you next week. @Mitch_Giguere.