Free shot execution point
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Started
During our discussion about the (in)direct execution of the free shot, the idea came up to change the execution point for the free shot.
Especially with a direct free shot (but to a smaller extent also with the indirect free shot), the difference between a free shot from e.g. 7 m (foul outside the goal zone) and a corner (foul within goal zone) is considerable. To make this difference smaller, the idea is to execute all free shot from the point where the foul happened (also within the goal zone). Only fouls behind the extend goal line would be done from the corner point. Fouls closer to the goal than xy m would be moved out to a distance of xy m. We would need to specify the number xy, which is 2m + some additional small distance. So in total e.g., 3m or 4m (my suggestion). This rule would be very similar to floorball, where no "goal zone" does exist.
We didn't have the time last week to properly discuss this very need idea, so no consensus so far.
I had the chance to get some opinions from Swiss players and the first feedback was that they didn't like this idea very much. I will try to figure out the most important arguments against this idea.
Comment
I think one challenge here is that you can shoot with a lot of force with an ice hockey stick so allowing a direct free shot a couple of meters from the goal could be a mess. In practice I would expect direct shots to not really be viable here but also that a lot of people would clamor in front of the goal so it would take some time to get back to a good game.
This is one benefit with the corner shot where you typically have players from both teams spread out over the field allowing a lot of fast play to occur. Another option would be that instead of doing corner shots for fouls the shots would be moved to the 6.5 m line but 2 meters from the wall in whatever side the foul occurred. Then you still have a quite good direct shot at goal but you'll also still have a lot of space for the game in case no direct shot is attempted.
Comment
I think for this one we were initially talking it through without changing the direct shot on goal. I do think a direct shot on goal 4m front with all players packing the goal could be messy. I would be keen to know how this actually plays out in practice. I would have thought a few factors would make it more minor than it appears. 1) it is only for fouls not the ball going out 2) many of the fouls that are committed within the goal area would not be withing a X meters of the goal so they would be taken from the spot they were committed which may not be that close to the goal 3) a foul commited that was so close to the goal that we had to use the rule to bring it back to X meters would likely be rarer, and often lead to something like 6.5m shotnor automatic goal so the close fouls within a few meters of goal may not change much.