Murray sees few changes to game
Sept 11, 2005 15:20:35 GMT -5
Post by M. Beaux-Eaux on Sept 11, 2005 15:20:35 GMT -5
Murray sees few changes to game
Many hockey enthusiasts predict the NHL will be faster this season
By ALLAN MAKI
Saturday, September 10, 2005 Page S5
The letters and e-mails haven't stopped trickling in and Andy Murray makes it his business to glance at them. Just in case, he says. Just in case someone has come up with a gem of an idea that will transform the Los Angeles Kings into the superheroes of this new and unknown National Hockey League season.
Not that he's seen anything close to a workable suggestion yet.
"Most of the stuff I get from fans has to do with a home-run pass that sets up a breakaway," Murray, the Kings' head coach, said on the eve of training camp for the 30 NHL clubs. "At the end of the night, if you try those long passes, 15 per cent will work and 85 per cent you just give the puck away to the other team.
"We don't think there are going to be as many changes in the game as most people think."
Hockey enthusiasts from Edmonton to Tampa Bay believe the 2005-06 NHL regular season will be a wild and unpredictable joy ride because of the many big-name players who have switched teams and because of the crackdown on obstruction (this time for real), the elimination of the centre-ice line for long passes and goaltender with smaller equipment and less freedom to play the puck.
But Murray, a student of trends and tactics, is convinced that for all the adjustments teams will make, the games will be much the same as before.
"I think the game will be faster and that speed will be more significant," Murray assessed. "If you can't skate and get body position in front of the puck carrier, if you're chasing and have to use your stick, you're in trouble. But with the red line out, teams have to play the game they're best suited to play."
Murray isn't the only one to think that. Carolina Hurricanes bench boss Peter Laviolette watched top-flight NHL players practising under the new rules during the U.S. Olympic team's orientation camp in Colorado Springs, Colo., this week. As the head coach of the American entry for the Turin hockey tournament in February, Laviolette made a quick assessment: puck control means everything.
"For me, it's all about the puck now. If you've got it, it's going to be tough to stop it. So you better figure out a way to get it and hang onto it. I [also] think there will be some reteaching of defence and how to defend."
The ousting of the red line for two-line passes has been debated by players and coaches who have watched the international game, sans centre line, and gagged on the results.
Overseas, players don't trap as much as they retreat and line up across their blueline as if posing for a team photo. Their objective is to put people to sleep quicker than Reveen, then jump on the opposition's mistakes and try to remember how to score goals.
Ken Hitchcock of the Philadelphia Flyers got to see another collection of top-flight NHL players practising under the new rules when the Canadian Olympic team held its camp in Kelowna, B.C., last month.
What Hitchcock observed cemented several opinions, the most prominent being: There are only two ways to play without the red line: You either fore-check to create turnovers or you retreat and play Reveen hockey.
"You have to have one attitude or the other," said Hitchcock, an Olympic team assistant coach. "You do see [teams falling back] in international hockey. There's no fore-check. It should be different here because the rinks are smaller. Teams that are aggressive with and without the puck, if they're successful early, everybody will follow. That would be good for the league."
Being a defenceman will arguably be the most difficult job in the new NHL. Defencemen will have to guard against quick attacks, thanks to the tag-up offside rule, and they'll have to protect themselves from blitzing forwards who can't be slowed up lest referees call an obstruction penalty.
"A bad change, somebody that's sleeping, trying to get a sniff offensively, you'll pay the price," New Jersey Devils netminder Martin Brodeur said. "For a goalie, it's going to be important to keep that communication with your defencemen to make sure it doesn't happen."
Hitchcock's take was more ominous.
"[Forwards] get a bigger run and you can't interfere with them," he said. "I don't know what you can do if you don't have 20 defencemen to play the year."
While in favour of aggressive fore-checking and a high-tempo game, Hitchcock is preaching patience in one regard. Yes, he acknowledged, there will be defensive gaffes aplenty in the early going. Yes, there will be shots that sneak by goaltender because of the smaller equipment. And, yes, there will be lots of penalties called, which will slow the game down to the speed of poker.
But be patient, Hitchcock said.
"The first time there are 10 or 12 penalties for each team, we can't have a collective heart attack," he said.
"It's going to happen, so let's learn how to adjust."
In the meantime, you can keep sending suggestions to your favourite NHL coach. They'll be looked at; just don't expect them to be used.
- tinyurl.com/cp2la
Many hockey enthusiasts predict the NHL will be faster this season
By ALLAN MAKI
Saturday, September 10, 2005 Page S5
The letters and e-mails haven't stopped trickling in and Andy Murray makes it his business to glance at them. Just in case, he says. Just in case someone has come up with a gem of an idea that will transform the Los Angeles Kings into the superheroes of this new and unknown National Hockey League season.
Not that he's seen anything close to a workable suggestion yet.
"Most of the stuff I get from fans has to do with a home-run pass that sets up a breakaway," Murray, the Kings' head coach, said on the eve of training camp for the 30 NHL clubs. "At the end of the night, if you try those long passes, 15 per cent will work and 85 per cent you just give the puck away to the other team.
"We don't think there are going to be as many changes in the game as most people think."
Hockey enthusiasts from Edmonton to Tampa Bay believe the 2005-06 NHL regular season will be a wild and unpredictable joy ride because of the many big-name players who have switched teams and because of the crackdown on obstruction (this time for real), the elimination of the centre-ice line for long passes and goaltender with smaller equipment and less freedom to play the puck.
But Murray, a student of trends and tactics, is convinced that for all the adjustments teams will make, the games will be much the same as before.
"I think the game will be faster and that speed will be more significant," Murray assessed. "If you can't skate and get body position in front of the puck carrier, if you're chasing and have to use your stick, you're in trouble. But with the red line out, teams have to play the game they're best suited to play."
Murray isn't the only one to think that. Carolina Hurricanes bench boss Peter Laviolette watched top-flight NHL players practising under the new rules during the U.S. Olympic team's orientation camp in Colorado Springs, Colo., this week. As the head coach of the American entry for the Turin hockey tournament in February, Laviolette made a quick assessment: puck control means everything.
"For me, it's all about the puck now. If you've got it, it's going to be tough to stop it. So you better figure out a way to get it and hang onto it. I [also] think there will be some reteaching of defence and how to defend."
The ousting of the red line for two-line passes has been debated by players and coaches who have watched the international game, sans centre line, and gagged on the results.
Overseas, players don't trap as much as they retreat and line up across their blueline as if posing for a team photo. Their objective is to put people to sleep quicker than Reveen, then jump on the opposition's mistakes and try to remember how to score goals.
Ken Hitchcock of the Philadelphia Flyers got to see another collection of top-flight NHL players practising under the new rules when the Canadian Olympic team held its camp in Kelowna, B.C., last month.
What Hitchcock observed cemented several opinions, the most prominent being: There are only two ways to play without the red line: You either fore-check to create turnovers or you retreat and play Reveen hockey.
"You have to have one attitude or the other," said Hitchcock, an Olympic team assistant coach. "You do see [teams falling back] in international hockey. There's no fore-check. It should be different here because the rinks are smaller. Teams that are aggressive with and without the puck, if they're successful early, everybody will follow. That would be good for the league."
Being a defenceman will arguably be the most difficult job in the new NHL. Defencemen will have to guard against quick attacks, thanks to the tag-up offside rule, and they'll have to protect themselves from blitzing forwards who can't be slowed up lest referees call an obstruction penalty.
"A bad change, somebody that's sleeping, trying to get a sniff offensively, you'll pay the price," New Jersey Devils netminder Martin Brodeur said. "For a goalie, it's going to be important to keep that communication with your defencemen to make sure it doesn't happen."
Hitchcock's take was more ominous.
"[Forwards] get a bigger run and you can't interfere with them," he said. "I don't know what you can do if you don't have 20 defencemen to play the year."
While in favour of aggressive fore-checking and a high-tempo game, Hitchcock is preaching patience in one regard. Yes, he acknowledged, there will be defensive gaffes aplenty in the early going. Yes, there will be shots that sneak by goaltender because of the smaller equipment. And, yes, there will be lots of penalties called, which will slow the game down to the speed of poker.
But be patient, Hitchcock said.
"The first time there are 10 or 12 penalties for each team, we can't have a collective heart attack," he said.
"It's going to happen, so let's learn how to adjust."
In the meantime, you can keep sending suggestions to your favourite NHL coach. They'll be looked at; just don't expect them to be used.
- tinyurl.com/cp2la