After The Intermission (how the NHL should come back)
There are many theories and ideas about how the NHL can do a better job of drawing casual fans to the game and bringing back formerly hard core fans who have lost interest. The first and most obvious one would be to get a new collective bargaining agreement in place that makes sense for both sides. In order to get this done, both sides would need to compromise more than they've shown a willingness to do so far, and perhaps a great deal more than they'd like. Until they actually start playing hockey again, they'll continue to lose fan interest. Many of those fans may never come back to the sport, and I believe there will be a possibly extensive period of apathy and bitterness among fans no matter what the league does when they finally get their act together. There's a heavy price to be paid for being the first pro franchise to lose an entire season to a labor dispute.
So, how can the league reinvent itself to be more appealing? Like a lot of people, I believe the game must be redesigned to provide for more offense. The challenge lies in exactly how to accomplish that. Let's examine some of the ideas I've heard being bandied about.
1. Take out the center red line or do away with the 2-line pass. I'm definitely in favor of this idea, but I'm not so attached to it that I would argue that much with the traditionalists who want to keep it. Wayne Gretzky, who has some ideas about how the game can be opened up, definitely refers to himself as a purist/traditionalist. There's something to be said for taking that position. On the other hand, I've watched a fair amount of college and high school hockey, and there's no denying the fact that making it legal for a player to complete a pass from inside his own blue line to a teammate on the other side of the red line really does have the effect of creating more offense. It leads to more breakaways and more odd-man rushes, which would naturally lead to more goals being scored. You'd see more breakaway passes to players just stepping out of the penalty box, and more scoring opportunities when the other team is caught changing lines "on the fly". Granted, you may have more players who spend their time "suckholing" around their opponent's blue line looking for a breakaway, but those same players probably hang around the center line for the same reason now. What's the difference? To me, that's a coaching issue. Players will simply have to get used to paying more attention to their own blue lines to guard against that possibility. I'm sure that a professional hockey player can learn to do that.
2. Make the goalie equipment smaller. This is a big one, and the only one I've really heard Wayne Gretzky advocate. The concurrent argument is "make the nets bigger", but I think most people who are suggesting that would be pacified by shrinking the goalie equipment. If you look at the pads that a goalie wore 20 years ago and compare it to today, it's almost shocking. I realize that if you go back 40-50 years, most goalies didn't wear masks. I'm not suggesting a return to that, of course. No one would play the position. If the players' union wants to make the argument that larger pads are needed for safety reasons given that players today are arguably bigger and stronger and are using sticks made of synthetic materials and can shoot the puck harder and faster as a result, then I can understand that. I'm not sure that case can be convincingly made. Everything is bigger on goalies now. Leg pads, blockers, catching gloves, the padding they wear under their sweaters. It must be like trying to shoot the puck past the Sta-Puft Marshmallow Man. Unless hard data is available that proves that more injuries are prevented by the larger padding, then the goalie equipment should be shrunk down to something close to 1980s dimensions.
3. Outlaw the Neutral Zone Trap and the Left Wing Lock and anything else that clogs up the center ice area. I am not in favor of this one, and neither is Wayne Gretzky. To me, these styles are new strategies that were designed by inventive coaches and were developed fully within the existing rules of the game. There's nothing wrong with that. It's part of the game to have to fight through checks and to have to adjust to the legal ways that the other team tries to thwart your offense. I do believe that something should be done to cut down on the clutching and grabbing and hooking and tackling that goes on, but that can most likely be accomplished by simply enforcing the existing rules properly (for a look at the NHL rulebook, click here: http://nhl.com/hockeyu/rulebook/index.html.).
4. Limit the areas in which a goalie can freeze the puck. It used to be that the only place a goalie could cover the puck to force a faceoff was in his crease. I would advocate a return of that rule. I don't have anything against a goalie acting as a third defenseman as some people do. If a goalie is a great puckhandler and wants to initiate the offense by making a breakout pass or shooting the puck away from an opponent, I'm all for that. Keep the puck moving. Allowing goaltenders to freeze the puck anywhere on the ice only leads to more stoppages of play, which obviously slows the game down.
5. Use shootouts to decide tie games. This one has been suggested many times, and rejected by the NHLPA just as often. This makes no sense to me. Have your 5-minute 4-on-4 overtime period, but if you're still tied at the end of that, use some sort of a shootout system to decide a winner. I think most people wouldn't care if there was never another tie in the NHL. Why the players cling to it so desperately is beyond me. Who feels good about walking out of the arena after a tie game? The penalty shot is the most exciting play in hockey. Nothing beats the drama of one player skating in alone on the goalie. How about 5 tries a side? Each chooses its 5 skaters. Whoever scores the most times wins. If each side scores an equal amount, we have a sudden death situation similar to the one used in Olympic soccer. If the league wants to award one point or something to the losing side like it does now, I have no problem with that. The skaters could take their helmets off for the shootout. It would help the players connect with the fans in a very real, personal way, something that will be sorely needed in the wake of the labor mess. Many hockey players are good-looking guys. Why hide those looks under a helmet?
Those are the major ideas I've heard about how scoring can be increased. As long as we're on the subject of rules, though, here are a couple more changes I would like to see the league make:
1. Eliminate the Instigator Rule. There was a time when the players would police themselves very effectively. Any player who took a run at a superstar or gave him a cheap shot would know that he was going to have to answer for it via an appointment with the other team's designated enforcer(s). Now, the Matt Cookes and Jarko Ruutus of the league and others of their ilk can do whatever they want and cackle about it, knowing that, particularly in a tight game, no opponent is going to risk the extra 2-minute penalty for instigating a fight in order to even the score. That's just not right. Let the players settle things on the ice like they used to do. I know the league would like to cut down on fighting, but this is not the way to do that. Personally, I enjoy a good fight. It's fun to watch, and it allows the players to blow off steam and take their frustrations out without resorting to more dangerous methods involving their sticks.
2. Institute no-touch icing. I know I said the idea was to keep the puck moving, but the current system is just plain dangerous. Icing is a good rule, but icing needs to be icing. There's simply no good reason that a player should risk serious injury by skating full throttle towards the end boards in an attempt to either prevent a faceoff or prevent his opponent from preventing a faceoff. Just blow it dead and be done with it.
Those are my ideas. I welcome comments.
Cheers!
So, how can the league reinvent itself to be more appealing? Like a lot of people, I believe the game must be redesigned to provide for more offense. The challenge lies in exactly how to accomplish that. Let's examine some of the ideas I've heard being bandied about.
1. Take out the center red line or do away with the 2-line pass. I'm definitely in favor of this idea, but I'm not so attached to it that I would argue that much with the traditionalists who want to keep it. Wayne Gretzky, who has some ideas about how the game can be opened up, definitely refers to himself as a purist/traditionalist. There's something to be said for taking that position. On the other hand, I've watched a fair amount of college and high school hockey, and there's no denying the fact that making it legal for a player to complete a pass from inside his own blue line to a teammate on the other side of the red line really does have the effect of creating more offense. It leads to more breakaways and more odd-man rushes, which would naturally lead to more goals being scored. You'd see more breakaway passes to players just stepping out of the penalty box, and more scoring opportunities when the other team is caught changing lines "on the fly". Granted, you may have more players who spend their time "suckholing" around their opponent's blue line looking for a breakaway, but those same players probably hang around the center line for the same reason now. What's the difference? To me, that's a coaching issue. Players will simply have to get used to paying more attention to their own blue lines to guard against that possibility. I'm sure that a professional hockey player can learn to do that.
2. Make the goalie equipment smaller. This is a big one, and the only one I've really heard Wayne Gretzky advocate. The concurrent argument is "make the nets bigger", but I think most people who are suggesting that would be pacified by shrinking the goalie equipment. If you look at the pads that a goalie wore 20 years ago and compare it to today, it's almost shocking. I realize that if you go back 40-50 years, most goalies didn't wear masks. I'm not suggesting a return to that, of course. No one would play the position. If the players' union wants to make the argument that larger pads are needed for safety reasons given that players today are arguably bigger and stronger and are using sticks made of synthetic materials and can shoot the puck harder and faster as a result, then I can understand that. I'm not sure that case can be convincingly made. Everything is bigger on goalies now. Leg pads, blockers, catching gloves, the padding they wear under their sweaters. It must be like trying to shoot the puck past the Sta-Puft Marshmallow Man. Unless hard data is available that proves that more injuries are prevented by the larger padding, then the goalie equipment should be shrunk down to something close to 1980s dimensions.
3. Outlaw the Neutral Zone Trap and the Left Wing Lock and anything else that clogs up the center ice area. I am not in favor of this one, and neither is Wayne Gretzky. To me, these styles are new strategies that were designed by inventive coaches and were developed fully within the existing rules of the game. There's nothing wrong with that. It's part of the game to have to fight through checks and to have to adjust to the legal ways that the other team tries to thwart your offense. I do believe that something should be done to cut down on the clutching and grabbing and hooking and tackling that goes on, but that can most likely be accomplished by simply enforcing the existing rules properly (for a look at the NHL rulebook, click here: http://nhl.com/hockeyu/rulebook/index.html.).
4. Limit the areas in which a goalie can freeze the puck. It used to be that the only place a goalie could cover the puck to force a faceoff was in his crease. I would advocate a return of that rule. I don't have anything against a goalie acting as a third defenseman as some people do. If a goalie is a great puckhandler and wants to initiate the offense by making a breakout pass or shooting the puck away from an opponent, I'm all for that. Keep the puck moving. Allowing goaltenders to freeze the puck anywhere on the ice only leads to more stoppages of play, which obviously slows the game down.
5. Use shootouts to decide tie games. This one has been suggested many times, and rejected by the NHLPA just as often. This makes no sense to me. Have your 5-minute 4-on-4 overtime period, but if you're still tied at the end of that, use some sort of a shootout system to decide a winner. I think most people wouldn't care if there was never another tie in the NHL. Why the players cling to it so desperately is beyond me. Who feels good about walking out of the arena after a tie game? The penalty shot is the most exciting play in hockey. Nothing beats the drama of one player skating in alone on the goalie. How about 5 tries a side? Each chooses its 5 skaters. Whoever scores the most times wins. If each side scores an equal amount, we have a sudden death situation similar to the one used in Olympic soccer. If the league wants to award one point or something to the losing side like it does now, I have no problem with that. The skaters could take their helmets off for the shootout. It would help the players connect with the fans in a very real, personal way, something that will be sorely needed in the wake of the labor mess. Many hockey players are good-looking guys. Why hide those looks under a helmet?
Those are the major ideas I've heard about how scoring can be increased. As long as we're on the subject of rules, though, here are a couple more changes I would like to see the league make:
1. Eliminate the Instigator Rule. There was a time when the players would police themselves very effectively. Any player who took a run at a superstar or gave him a cheap shot would know that he was going to have to answer for it via an appointment with the other team's designated enforcer(s). Now, the Matt Cookes and Jarko Ruutus of the league and others of their ilk can do whatever they want and cackle about it, knowing that, particularly in a tight game, no opponent is going to risk the extra 2-minute penalty for instigating a fight in order to even the score. That's just not right. Let the players settle things on the ice like they used to do. I know the league would like to cut down on fighting, but this is not the way to do that. Personally, I enjoy a good fight. It's fun to watch, and it allows the players to blow off steam and take their frustrations out without resorting to more dangerous methods involving their sticks.
2. Institute no-touch icing. I know I said the idea was to keep the puck moving, but the current system is just plain dangerous. Icing is a good rule, but icing needs to be icing. There's simply no good reason that a player should risk serious injury by skating full throttle towards the end boards in an attempt to either prevent a faceoff or prevent his opponent from preventing a faceoff. Just blow it dead and be done with it.
Those are my ideas. I welcome comments.
Cheers!
posted by Dave at 10:33 AM
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