Touch-up icing versus no-touch icing

As the years tick by in the sports world, things change. We've seen the digital age spill over into professional sports with the use of video replays to help determine that the correct call is made. There's also the steroid era, most notably in baseball. And in a lot of sports, either by nature or enhancing drugs, athletes are getting bigger and stronger.

Change is a part of life, so sports are no exceptions.

Examining whether certain rules need adjusting is a big talking point among analysts and the casual fan. As the saying goes, "there's always room for improvement."

Can't touch this
I want to dive in to the debate between touch-up icing and no-touch icing in hockey. The high school level has no-touch icing, while the NHL does not. I'm in favor of changing the rules in the NHL to institute the no-touch rule.

The No. 1 and obvious reason why? Injuries. Just ask former Wild player Kurtis Foster and Houston Aeros' player Tyler Cuma, who tore his ACL over the weekend after a nasty collision with the end boards. Foster broke his leg and was out of commission with the Wild for 11 months. He got hurt after being hit against the boards while chasing the puck in a game in San Jose.

So the question to ask: Is it really worth risking serious injury to players just for a race at full speed to a puck in hopes of getting to it first to make a play or for a well-positioned faceoff?

Not in my opinion.

Injuries always a threat, still...
Now, I know injuries can happen at any time during games, or even warm ups. Heck, players can be forced to sit out after seemingly harmless things like cutting his finger on a suitcase zipper. (See former Twins pitcher Rick Reed in 2002).

But sometimes there are precautions you can take to help minimize the number of injuries, and I think the icing versus no-touch icing falls into that category.

I mean, how many times does a player actually get back in time to touch the puck first so there is no icing call? It happens, but I'd say more often than not, it's touched up for the icing call. So if icing is the case most of the time anyway, than why not just have the no-touch rule to save on some potential injuries.

Just don't take the risk
Players chasing down the puck with an opponent, and then colliding with each other on the end boards at a high rate of speed isn't a great combination. The play happens so quickly that incidental and dangerous contact is hard to avoid.

Instituting no-touch icing might result in a couple more faceoffs, and it will give teams a few more seconds on the power play (which can be good or bad, depending on which side you're on at the time), but so what? Why risk it when there is so much at stake.

If it can work at the high school level, it should also be fine at the professional level. It'll eliminate a lot of problems and headaches - or worse - for teams all across the league.