Reminder - Face Coverings are required for ALL participants, don't let up, remain vigilant!
Rule 206 Injured Players
In a Youth or Girls’ game a player is hit by the puck in the neck area and falls to the ice. When should the play be stopped?
Play should always be stopped the instant any of the On-Ice Officials believes the injury to be serious or when the injured player’s team gains possession of the puck in a non-scoring position. Rule Reference 206(a).
Although the Referee will generally stop play for an injured player, any on-ice official should stop play immediately at the younger age levels anytime they deem the injury may be serious. If unsure as to the seriousness of the injury, officials should always err on the side of caution.
If the injury is not deemed to be serious, play should continue until that player’s team gains possession and control of the puck in a non-scoring situation.
Once Play is stopped, the closest official should immediately skate to the injured player, and if appropriate call the coach/trainer to the ice, the official should not attempt to move the player or remove equipment. Once the coach/trainer arrives, the official should move away but still be close enough to provide emergency assistance. Allow as much time as needed for the coach/trainer to assess and treat the injury. If play has been stopped for an injured player, that player must leave the ice. (The goalkeeper may remain on the ice.)
Rule 601 Abuse of Officials and Other Misconduct
Team A’s Head Coach is assessed a bench minor penalty for Abuse of Officials. While that penalty is still being served, the Assistant Coach now starts verbally abusing the Referee. What penalty should the Referee assess?
Game Misconduct Penalty. Rule Reference 601(e.1).
Provided the abuse is a continuation of the original action causing the bench minor penalty to be assessed, the game misconduct shall be assessed even though it is a different Team Official. This helps avoid the situation where two or more Team Officials work together to continue their inappropriate behavior without consequence greater than a bench minor penalty.
This is only applied when the abuse is a continuation of the original penalty. If the second Team Official engages in improper conduct several minutes later in response to a different situation, then the Referee must assess another bench minor penalty to start the penalty progression over.
Rule 630 Offsides
Are there general off-side situations to help decide regular vs. intentional off-sides?
Yes. Rule References 630(c & Note).
Judge the intent of the attacking team. The onus is on that team to create a legal play at the blue line. If it appears that the team has knowingly gone off-side, an intentional off-side is warranted. Otherwise, a regular off-side is the proper call. A play where attacking players are barely across the blue line going into the Attacking Zone, or within a stride of clearing the Attacking Zone as the puck is crossing the blue line into the zone would be examples of regular off-side situations (timing issues). If an attacking player is bumped off-side, that would be a regular off-side.
[Ed. Note: when there is obviously attacking players in the zone and bench is yelling for the player to dump it in, this is intentional offsides, the bench is looking for a whistle.]