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July 8, 2004 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Hershey Bears News Release


We're just about halfway through the offseason this week, and the AHL kicked into high gear toward opening night yesterday with the announcement that several rule changes will be in effect for the 2004-05 season. Among the changes:

-The AHL has implemented a shootout to decide regular-season games which are tied after a five-minute overtime period. In the AHL standings, teams will receive two points for a win, one point for a loss in overtime or in a shootout and zero points for a loss in regulation time.

-The AHL has reduced the number of qualifying teams for the Calder Cup 2005 Playoffs to 16 (from 20). The format will still feature a divisional playoff, leading to conference finals and ultimately the Calder Cup Final. The top four teams from each division will qualify for the postseason, and all rounds will feature best-of-seven series.

-The Board approved the relocation of the inactive franchise owned by Howard Baldwin from Louisville, Ky., to Des Moines, Iowa, to begin play in 2005-06.

-The Board approved the transfer of ownership of the Norfolk Admirals from Mark Garcea and Page Johnson to a group led by the Norfolk Tides Baseball Club and its president, Ken Young.

Reaction around the league has been very supportive of the change of the playoff format. There weren't too many clubs in favor of the best-of-three qualifying round, so the top four teams in each division will now go instead of the top five. While the old system kept playoff hopes alive longer for more teams, the top four certainly makes more sense than trying to squeeze in a "mini-series" before the main event gets underway. I think the top four would have actually made this last season more exciting down to the wire for the BEARS. The final weekend, Norfolk would have been eliminated when HERSHEY beat them on April 10th, and a win over Philadelphia on the 11th would have gotten Paul Fixter's team into the playoffs on the last day of the season with a tie-breaker against Binghamton. Oh yeah, it would have set up a 1 vs. 4 with the Phantoms right off the bat as well. The only bad part about dropping the qualifying round is that fewer teams make the postseason, but that's a good trade off for what you get in return. You get a seven game series right off the hop, you don't have as many delays between series (like this year when Hartford and Philadelphia both had 10 plus day layoffs in between in the East) and you have great rivalries in the first two rounds. Good change.

The shootout is something I wrestle with personally. I think it does give finality to a game and fans throughout (especially in old IHL cities) liked having it around, but I've never seen anything wrong with a tie game. A point on the road is always a good thing, and I'm not sure I like a skills competition deciding things after 65 minutes of hockey. However, I don't think there is any questioning that it adds a certain excitement to the end of the game and a chance to still get two points. I'm willing to give it a chance and see how it works.

The howl you hear from all of these changes is from the goaltenders. Smaller pads and shootouts are just the start of things for the backstops. An experiment during the first seven weeks of 2004-05 will allow goalies to only play the puck in a specified area behind the net. AHL President Dave Andrews told the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle about the rule change "If we like it, we'll keep it. My bet is, we'll like it." As you may imagine, the goaltenders are not pleased. Amerks goaltender Ryan Miller told D and C beat writer Kevin Oklobzija "I don't understand it; it's a skill, it's not cheating," Miller said of playing the puck behind the net. "Limiting a guy's skill. Brilliant. I didn't think for one second they'd try to do this. They're just reaching at stuff and it's ridiculous." Expect the first weeks of 2004-05 for this rule to take center stage and provide some controversy as goaltenders and players alike try to adjust to the changes.

Des Moines, Iowa, come on down! The team formerly known as the Louisville Panthers (I still shudder when I think of calling games in Freedom Hall, that's a building I won't ever miss) will reincarnate in 2005-06 in Iowa's capital city. It's a nice geographic fit for Milwaukee, Chicago and Grand Rapids. All reports are that the arena being built there will be a very nice place for hockey and other events. Congratulations to the folks in Iowa for becoming the newest members of the AHL.

As if the rule changes didn't make for a busy week, the free agent signing period began last Thursday. Not a whole lot of action to date, but the Flyers did sign Turner Stevenson and Mike Knuble to contracts last week. The Avalanche also inked wingers Antti Laaksonen and Ian Laperriere late last week. Good to see the Avs involved in the free agent process early on; that bodes well for organizational depth.

Time for the mailbag now, with a timely question about scheduling....

Hi John:

I was wondering what goes into making up the schedule, and who decides what teams play who, and how many.

Liz Hollandsworth

Manheim

Liz, the plan of what teams play each other is mostly in the hands of the American Hockey League and mostly out of the hands of the individual teams. The league's Board of Governors meet the last week of June to talk about rule changes and other matters pertaining to the league, but they also try and hack out a schedule. The league submits the schedule of opponents to the Governors, and the Governors put it to a vote. Most teams want to get a schedule passed so that everyone can begin to get ready to start the season. It's virtually impossible to make everyone happy, because coaches, players (yes, broadcasters too) and fans want to see teams that we haven't seen lately. For instance, coach Fixter would love to see Hamilton or Toronto on the schedule since his hometown is a short distance away from either city. I would love to see Cincinnati. It just wasn't meant to be this season.

Our first question (of many I'm sure) about the rule changes for 2004-05....

John:

How will the standings be kept with the new shootout system? Will it look similar to last season, or will they go back to three columns?

John Nelson

Madison, WI

John, I believe that we'll go back to the three-column format, but I'm not sure it's been decided yet. It would seem to me that if you counted both overtime losses and shootout losses as one point, it could be listed as the same column. I'm a big fan of three columns, I never really have cared for the four column format. By the way, thanks for the shout out from the land of cheese and Badgers.

I'm bracing for the e-mail onslaught with all the rule changes and updates from this week, so I'm sure next week's column will be loaded with your questions. E-mail is jwalton@hersheypa.com. Talk to you next week.

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American Hockey League Stories from July 8, 2004


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