The new rules – and the enforcement of existing ones – are aimed at eliminating the interference, clutching, grabbing and hooking that has blighted the NHL game for almost two decades.
With admirable candor, Bruins defenseman Hal Gill admits that he's one of the guys who's done a fair bit of that clutching, grabbing and hooking. He knows he may have to make a significant adjustment in his game and figures his considerable experience the last three years for Team USA in international tournaments will make the adjustment easier.
"Obviously, I'm one guy who had the old rules play right into my hands, where I could hook and hold a lot,'' Gill said.
"There are certain things that are just never called. Like in front of the net, you could get away with cross-checking a guy in the back. I enjoyed that as a basic part of what I did. Now you can't do it. That's an obvious call. There's lot of other things, too. If you hook a guy hard, you always knew it should be called, but they often let it go. Now it's going to be called.''
Yet Gill, along with many others in the hockey world, isn't entirely convinced this crackdown on fouls will last any longer than the innumerable such mandates handed down over the years and promptly forgotten about by January.
"They're saying it's for real this time, but they've said that for a few years,'' he said. "Every year I've played, it seems they've talked about a big clampdown on rules. This one does seem to be a lot more of a commitment on the owners' part and the GMs, all the way down to the players. I think we realize the game needs to be faster. So we're all committed to it now, whereas in the past, maybe not.
Gill figures his experience playing in the last several World Championships on large European ice surfaces will ease his adjustment to the new environment. On those wider, longer rinks, there is far more skating room for speedy forwards and less chance to slow them down with a little grab or hook.
"With the new rules, it should really pay off for me to have played on all those world championship teams,'' he said. "There is definitely more skating over there. It helps now to know you can play hockey at a high level where you can't hook and hold, where you've got to move your feet to play.''
Ultimately, how much Gill and his NHL brethren have to relearn the game will be determined by the referees. And Gill, for one, isn't quite ready to abandon entirely the tactics that have made him successful unless he has to.
"It's something we have to feel out,'' he said. "We have to go out and play our game. I can't throw away everything I've ever learned in hockey. I have to do what I'm good at and what I've been successful at. And then, if I find that every little thing is going to get called, well, I guess I can't do it anymore.''
http://bruins.bostonherald.com/bruins/view.bg?articleid=103561
Gill could be traded to allow the Bruins to sign Boynton.(*) They don't have too many defensive defensemen, though. They're a very good team up front, and have three good goalies, but their defense is: Leetch, Boynton or Gill, Slegr, Moran... then, they are more or less forced to keep Girard (back in good shape after a near-fatal car crash two years ago), Jurcina and the young Stuart. I believe they're Stanley Cup contenders, though.
(*) I just read that Mike O'Connell denied that rumour, and told Gill not to worry about it:
http://www.rds.ca/hockey/chroniques/188421.html (in French)
