Announcement

Rule Change Update

Posted by JAHA Webmaster on Oct 12 2019 at 10:13AM PDT in Fall 2019
image

Earlier this season, a few proposed rule changes were noticed to the JAHA membership:

  1. Eliminating helmet stickers in favor of a list of eligible players that scorekeepers can reference.
  2. Changing the roster freeze date from two weeks to four games.
  3. Allowing full slap shots in Tier B.

We heard your feedback, considered the options forward as a board, and are moving forward as follows for each rule:

  1. HELMET STICKER ELIMINATION: No more stickers! Instead, the JHO scorekeeper has a reference list of all eligible and verified JAHA players and to double-verify, names can be validated against this website. It’s up to players to notify the scorekeeper if there is ever a question over a player’s registration status. Remember, every player on the ice must be registered for both JAHA and USA Hockey to be allowed to play. Failure to abide by this could put everyone on the ice at risk if there is injury and egregious violations could put all organized adult hockey in Juneau at risk. While there was discussion of printing, storing, and distributing roster labels for each team, this has proven to be much more complicated than originally planned and so you will need to continue to write names on your scoresheet OR if you have a team member who wants to produce labels for your team, you are always welcome to do so.
  2. ROSTER FREEZE DATE: We got some great feedback that basically was: given how games are scheduled, “four games” may not allow for an accurate observation of teams’ competitive parity since not every team may play the other over this span. We will adopt the rule change as-is (since both two weeks and four games have already passed), work on an updated version that considers the feedback we received, and update it again before Winter season.
  3. TIER B SLAP SHOTS: After careful consideration of the concerns we received-primarily that this rule could increase the number of injuries-and discussion, the board decided to allow full slap shots in Tier B effective Sunday, October 13th, and will observe games for the remainder of the Fall season. The main drivers behind this decision were: the availability of protective gear for those concerned about injury (i.e. full cages) and the positive impact to the flow of Tier B games by eliminating whistles for over-the-waist windups that are difficult to be consistent with. Secondarily, the lack of observed injuries in Tier A directly related to full slap shots, the low number of opportunities for players to actually take these shots, and the idea that players will never get better at slap shots if they aren’t allowed to try them also contributed to this decision.

A little more on slap shots: we encourage you to PRACTICE your slap shot in a non-game situation before trying it out with your team and WATCH YOUR WINDUP. A high stick on a windup is still a penalty, so be mindful of who is around before you line up a slapper.

Thank you all for your participation in this change to JAHA’s rules! We are always looking for ways to advance the sport here in Juneau and trying to keep how we run current based on user feedback is one way we can do that.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at info@juneauhockey.org.

See you on the ice!

—Commissioner Soza

Comments

There are no comments for this announcement.