Just a quick note….the AHL Borad Of Governors annual meeting has ended, and we now have some divisional alignments and some new rules.
Goodbye Charlotte. Hello Grand Rapids.
The Griffins join us in the Midwest Division, Charlotte joins the Texas teams and OKC in the new South Division, and Abbotsford joins the North Division. That North Division….lots of travel….holy cow….Abbotsford, Cleveland, Toronto, Hamilton, and Rochester…..
And rule changes…..(ripped from the press release at theahl.com)
Video Review
The Board has approved the use of a video goal-review system for AHL games beginning with the 2012-13 season.
(Let us rejoice and be glad!)
Rules Changes
The AHL has adopted the following rule changes recently approved for use in the National Hockey League:
• Rule 67.2 (“Handling the Puck”) now calls for a minor penalty “any time a player places his hand over the puck while it is on the ice in order to conceal it from or prevent an opponent from playing the puck”.
(Keep your hands to yourself)
• Rule 76.4 (“Face-offs”) states that “both players facing off are prohibited from batting the puck with their hand in an attempt to win the face-off.” Violation of this rule will result in a minor penalty for delay of game.
(Which will hereby known as the Wacey Rabbit Rule)
• The Board has also approved a test of a variation on Rule 81 (“Icing”) at the request of the National Hockey League, that will, in the event of a potential icing violation, complete the play should a defending player be the first to reach the end zone face-off dots and provided the puck has crossed the goal line at that point. This rule will be in effect until Nov. 19, 2012, at which time its continued use will be determined by the Board. This was the only rules test approved.
(This will be interesting….Hopefully the linesmen are up to the challenge of calling it accurately and consistently)
So Roundtable — do you like the new changes?
Admirals Roundtable 
We FINALLY got to see a new team at the BC (Charlotte) and now they get taken away after just a single season and replaced with old, played out Grand Rapids. Come on. When can we start to see some Eastern teams? Would it kill anyone if the Norfolk Admirals came to town?
Charlotte was a waste of scheduled games. They didn’t play in the Midwest enough to even begin making a rivalry of it. I’d rather have Grand Rapids back.
If Norfolk came to town, my money would be on the Admirals to win that game.
RE: The changes. You have to love video review. I would love to see the amount of goals overturned as a result of video replay. Overall a huge step forward as a league was made today in my opinion.
All the rule changes are great. I for one welcome them. I also agree with Wolfkeeper. At least with Grand Rapids we’ll have some more rivalry games. The issue isn’t that Charlotte is moved out, it’s that we’re still going to get stuck playing the Wolves and Rockford 12 times and any team from the East 0 times.
Wouldn’t mind seeing the NHL/AHL to go the No Touch Icing Rule, much safer for the players and it somewhat will prevent a coach from running a boring/irritating system.