From the Connecticut Post:
A bad clear in the AHL next year will cost a team a chance to change players, the league announced Wednesday. If a skater shoots the puck directly into the stands from his own defensive zone, that skater's team will not be allowed a line change before the next faceoff. This will be a less onerous punishment than an automatic delay-of-game penalty for this infraction, which the AHL tried and then abandoned in 2002-03 and the NHL used last year.
For more from the league, click here.
I know there's a lot of bile out there for this particular rule, but as far as I'm concerned, it was a welcome change. The point of the rule is not simply to punish skaters that put the puck out of play, but to make them think about making a play with the puck, rather than just blindly whacking at it in a desperate attempt to clear the zone.
There's one thing I know for sure: Now that the AHL has reduced the price of this infraction and made it the moral equivalent of icing, we're going to see it happen a lot more often. And that's not a good thing. I hope the NHL does not follow suit.
I didn’t see the puck leave the ice surface any less frequently last season due to the minor penalty called. It’s a waste, I hope the NHL follows the AHL in this instance.