Today's NHL

[Montrealer]

Luckily I had stopped watching the game after the second period because I honestly had seen enough this year to accurately predict they would not score.

Welcome to today's NHL.

Make the damn nets bigger, I say. If not, this league will continue to die. I can't believe how bad it's getting - Philly isn't filling up the stands, you have crowds of 11,000 in Chicago, you have 0 interest by the American media and declining interest by the Canadian media....

Hell, of the died-in-the-wool Habs fans in my lab (me and Freakzilla), we're admitting that it just isn't fun to watch the games anymore.

Same old, same old.

If the Habs score first, there's a 80%+ probability they'll win. Whoooooooo, how exciting!

If the Habs don't score first, there's a 90%+ probability they'll lose. Whoooooooo, bring it on!

It's becoming a farce, and if some league governors, GMs, coaches and players don't get their tetes out of their netherregions you will live to see this league die.

Look, when your average Euro-league soccer team is outscoring the Montreal Canadiens, I think you should realize there is a serious, serious problem.

It's not too many teams, naysayers. Scoring would be even lower in a 21-team NHL, because you would have the 21 best goalies in today's NHL on each team. Can you imagine? The 21st ranked goalie has a .912 save percentage!

I think the NHL needs to do the following:

-Make the nets bigger. The goalies, equipment aside, are much bigger than they used to be, and the nets have been the same size for what, fifty years? More? If you're opposed to this, ask yourself - are you truly committed to maintain the size of the goal nets for eternity? Would you rather the game you love slide into obscurity and ruin to maintain the size of a piece of equipment?

-Eliminate two-line offside passes. Use the red-line for judging icing calls only. This will help neutralize the neutral zone trap's effectiveness.

Am I crazy? I guess so, because every time I bring this up people say I'm some sort of radical and the size of the goal nets was written in stone by God and passed down to the people by Moses.

[Andrew]

Montrealer said:

It's not too many teams, naysayers. Scoring would be even lower in a 21-team NHL, because you would have the 21 best goalies in today's NHL on each team. Can you imagine? The 21st ranked goalie has a .912 save percentage!

That argument hinges on the assumption that the skill level of today's goaltenders is the dominant factor in the decline of offense in the NHL. I disagree. Coaching, officiating, goalie pads, and (here we go...) a watered down talent pool are collectively way more significant in the reduction of scoring in the NHL.

I like the idea of taking out the red line, as well as restricting the size of goalie equipment. I'm not in favor of enlarging the nets, however.

I'm in total agreement that it's not fun to watch Habs games anymore.

[Doc Holliday]

I have watched more non-HABS games this year than I ever did and though one must admit that the scoring IS down, I can gurantee you that the HABS games were by far the worsts in terms of show. Personally if I had just the HABS to watch, I am not sure I would follow hockey this closely... Many good teams are playing in bad places while many bad teams are playing in good places, contraction is unavoidable. Montreal is a prime example of an extremely interesting market for the NHL but we can't ice an interesting team because the good young players are going to Tampa Bay, Columbus, Carolina and what have you while the good established players are continually going to the same 4-5 extra rich teams. Bring up the whole Lightning team in Montreal and you'd have a new dinasty in your hands with the possibility of creating strong rivalries again with Boston, Toronto, etc...

Call me narrow minded and obtuse but the overabundance of European players in this league also counts a bit for the decrease in popularity. It's getting harder and harder to relate and identify yourself to "your" team when in therory it would belong more in Moscow...

The model will not hold for long but I am ready to watch something else than what I am watching now, something that resemble the hockey I watched and played 20 (some) years ago.

[Boston_Habs]

The game is simply a shadow of what it was even just 10 years ago, when you could usually count on at least 5 100-point scorers in the NHL.

Rule changes are necessary. We've recycled these before but they are worth revisiting.

1. Get rid of the red line.
I can't hurt - it can only help. Most coaches don't want to get rid of it, while most players do. That should tell you something. What's the worst that can happen? You can always change back.

2. Settle OT games with a shootout
This is a no brainer. It would keep fans in the seats longer, and you can get rid of the stupid "Overtime Loss" column in the standings. Play 4-on-4 for 5 minutes and settle it with a shootout.

3. 2-minute power plays.
The "pre 1950s Habs" rule. Pierre McGuire suggested this recently. Teams get the full 2 minutes PP, even if they score, but only for major stick infractions (high sticking, cross checking, slashing). It would have the double benefit of increasing scoring and deterring many of the penalties that the league is trying to stop.

As a practical matter it's too late to do anything about the ice surface, but you can move the nets back to where they were before the "Gretzky rule" as well as making the nets a bit wider.

[Lord Stanley]

I do agree that scoring is a problem but I think the show as a whole is worst then ever before...

Teams, thanks to the video, are so good defensively that they take all the scoring chances away. They cut the passing lanes better, they shadow the offensive guys better and they are so scared of making mistakes that they dump the puck instead of trying to create some offense...

I don't know how to fix this game really...

Some say 4 on 4 but NHLPA would never do that
Some, like Montrealer, say get these nets bigger but if the players can't shoot or get to the net it doesn't do anything.

Some say strip these MR Michelin goalies..again NHLPA would want to protect to goalies..

Some say get rid of the red line...Jacques Lemaire already said a while ago that if you take it out, coaches will come up with another trap to counter it's effect..

I say do like basketball and call the illegal defense

I don't know..I can't come up with anything new...all solutions have been brought up already on these boards and really I don't know what would help..


My two cents,

Freak

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

Fewer teams = higher concentration of talent. That will begin to happen after September 15, 2004. Until then we must settle for watching what used to be AHL calibre hockey. Moving the deck chairs around won't change that. Heaving some ballast overboard will.

[Disgruntled70sHab]

There's a lot of good suggestions in this thread for sure. I might repeat a few but here's what I suggest. Some of them are hockey points in general though;

• I really liked that 30-second faceoff rule in the Olympics. It certainly won't help scoring, but it would keep the game moving.
  
  
• I really like the idea of taking out the centre red line, if only for a season to give it a try. The game would open up emmensely.
  
  
• Perhaps consider going to a European-sized ice surface. And, with the larger surface, clutching and grabbing could possibly go down as there would be more room to skate.
  
  
• Doc, I don't know if it's the influx of Europeans that's bringing our game down, but rather, a lack of love for the game itself by most players. With this current CBA players are often guided by the NHLPA and/or their agents to hold out for the best contract. Therein lies the problem I believe. Once they get that contract most of today's players believe they deserve that money. And when that attitude sets in why even try your best? If it's passion we're missing, then eliminate the money and let the players who love the game compete for the Cup. That's a perfect-world scenario I guess.
  
  
• Go four-on-four in a five-minute overtime, then if a second five-minute overtime is required, go to a three-on-three format. Then, consider the shootout. Boston Hab suggested the shootout and you know something? The international game won't budge from it. I figure we'd better stop complaining about it and jump on board. The rest of the world has.
  
  
• Enforce obstruction penalties to the letter. Once players know that interference will not be tolerated, it should drop off considerably. However, getting the NHL board of governors to first agree to it and then stick to it, would be a miracle.
  
  
• Go back to the "tag-up" offside rule. Some feel it facilitates a trapping team best, but others insist it's best suited to big, fast, forechecking team.
  
  
• Boston Habs, I really like that "make 'em pay" stance by making the offending player sit out the full two minutes. The '76 Habs and the 80's Oilers had no problem scoring goals. Can you imagine if this were around then?

It's hard to know what would work guys, but I honestly think a lack of devotion to the game is very prevelent these days. And, why not? All they have to do is get themselves to the rink.

Cheers.

[M. Beaux-Eaux]

As the great debate over the National Hockey League's lack of offence continues, one group remains excluded.

Yet it's probably the group that deserves the loudest voice.

The players.

- slam.canoe.ca/Slam031114/col_strachan-sun.html