Hybrid icing and a new playoff format are the SJHL's two big rule changes following league meetings (Submitted photo/Broad Leaf Media).

By Aaron Schulze

New Rule

SJHL adopts eight-team playoffs and hybrid icing for 2019-20

Jun 7, 2019 | 5:19 PM

Following league meetings at the beginning of June, two massive rule changes will be coming the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League’s (SJHL) way for the 2019-20 season.

The governors voted to implement an eight-team playoff format and hybrid icing.

Eight Team Format

The 10-team wildcard survivor series playoff format has been scratched in favour of the top eight teams being seeded based on points.

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In previous years, the three division winners (Sherwood, Global Ag Risk Solutions, and Viterra) would secure the top three seeds in the SJHL playoffs, while the next seven teams would be seeded four through 10 based on point totals. The bottom four teams in the playoffs would play a best-of-three survivor series to determine who would play the top two seeds in the quarterfinals.

Bill Chow, SJHL commissioner, said the wildcard survivor series’ removal has been discussed for many years as to whether it’s financially viable or not for the bottom four teams.

“It seemed like the four teams in the wild card were the teams with the most travel distance between them the last few years and it didn’t make it financially viable,” Chow said. “It did for the teams that were moving on and it kind of evened out as the playoffs went, but if you didn’t move on it wasn’t really financially good for you. “When it comes to the seeding of points, you work hard all season to get the most points, so that’s where you should be slotted when it comes to playoffs.”

In the 2019 playoffs, the Flin Flon Bombers and Weyburn Red Wings were separated by nearly 800 km, while the Yorkton Terries and Notre Dame Hounds had over 200 km between their communities.

Trevor Blevins, head coach of the Melfort Mustangs, said the other driving factor between the format change is giving all playoff teams more rest in between games and will help the SJHL Champion be ready to face the Manitoba Junior Hockey League (MJHL) Champion in the Anavet Cup.

“We’ve had a little bit of lack of success against Manitoba here in the last few years as a league,” Blevins said. “We can spread out the playoffs and have that rest leading into the Anavet Cup; it’s huge for our league winner. It might generate a little more transactions at the trade deadline for the bottom four teams. If they’re kind of solidified in, there might be some more player movement to help make our teams stronger up top.”

The SJHL Champions have fallen to the MJHL Champions in two straight seasons since going back to the Anavet Cup format.

Doug Johnson, head coach of the Nipawin Hawks, made it to the Anavet Cup as SJHL Champions back in 2018 before they fell in six games to the Steinbach Pistons. While they were emotionally and mentally exhausted following the Humboldt Broncos bus crash that April, the physical aspect was a challenge for them.

“Physically, we were beat up,” Johnson said. “To have a few days off would have absolutely been beneficial for us. It’s going to benefit the SJHL moving forward for sure.”

Hybrid Icing

Instead of it being automatic, the SJHL will switch to hybrid icing next season, which means there will be a race between players to the faceoff dot in the end where the puck is going, instead of the puck crossing the goal line first.

Along with safety, Chow said the change is to also get SJHL players used to hybrid icing when they move on to the next level.

“Whether it’s the NCAA, WHL, or beyond that, they’re all playing the hybrid rule of icing,” Chow said.

Blevins thinks the hybrid icing change is exciting, as he expects the SJHL’s game to be faster next year because of it.

“We’re worried a little bit about player safety, but there’s going to be things in place to curb that,” Blevins said. “Most importantly, it’s going to make for a faster and exciting game with more turnovers and scoring chances. It’s going to be an adjustment, but everyone is going to have to work together with the officials and players, and make sure everyone buys in to make everyone safe on the ice.”

Johnson said he’s coached with hybrid icing in the past and is a big fan of it, but his only concern going into the 2019-20 season is the implementation.

“We just need to make sure the officials are trained in it,” Johnson said. “There are plays that can happen where there are going to be some physical confrontations that we may have not seen in the old way; where the offensive player is going to get to the puck first, then he’s going to get hit with a lot of force, and that’s going to be one of the downfalls of it. Hopefully the officials will air on the side of caution. We don’t want to wait for that puck to cross the line before they blow the whistle, we want to make sure that the whistle is blown or they yell ‘there’s no icing’ a lot earlier, so the players can prepare themselves and understand what’s going to happen.”

There are no other rule changes expected for the 2019-20 SJHL season.

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aaron.schulze@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @SchulzePANow