Exactly what I was thinking.
As for the Stanley Cup playoffs, as far as I am concerned they did not really happen this year. At least not after the Detroit Red Wings got knocked out.
Next season, the Wings take the Cup back to Motown, where it belongs.
I agree with Gorsnak on the holding rule. I also think they should get rid of the two line pass rule and open up the ice a little bit.
The NHL should have done something to combat the hooking, holding, and boring neutral zone trap type play, the first time that the Devils won the cup. It has gotten to a critical level now, and the only solution that would have an imediate impact is to widen the playing syrface. There are a few other changes that would help, but this one thing would help stop boring hockey.
But that would mean fewer seats!
No, seriously, they should do whatever they did right at the olympics.
The Devils might play boring hockey, no contest on that one, but at least their team name is better than I originally thought.
Well, Olympic ice is wider than NHL ice, anyway. I would think removing the two-line pass rule would help some, as Diogenes suggested.
Sorry, the basketball reference wasn’t meant as an analogy, just a knock at the sport and what it’s devolved into.
I disagree that changing the officiating policies on holding and the like would make hockey better. While I might argue that it’s probably gone on for too long to change now, I won’t take that angle, although it probably does have truth to it.
In your example above (which I’ll concede could make for more exciting games from a fans standpoint as far as odd man rushes and breakaway’s go) I believe if it were implemented it would shorten the careers of many players and usher in a new era of the game. Rather than focus on a strategy, teams would draft for youthful speed and force anyone that’s lost a step to retire. Hits and checking would fall by the wayside as the game turned into a 200’ race, first for offense and then back for defense, ad nauseum. In essence, hockey would become basketball where seemingly every shot becomes a foul shot if any contact is made at all, only hockey doesn’t have a foul shot so it’d become a game where a team’s most important stat was face-off wins. Hockey may be more exciting without all the hooking and such, but it’s also more exciting without a face-off everytime someone touches the puck.
While I agree also that the sport has moved away from how it was originally created to be played, that’s just part of the evolution of the sport. The athletes involved are bigger and stronger and faster than they were then and so the rules have had to adapt (or be bent, as you will) to the changes in the players. Regardless of the rules, there will always be hooking and holding and interference and boarding, etc. At some point the ref’s have to let the players play, the question is: where to draw the line?
On the flip side, to help open up the ice, I vote to remove icing.
Hats off to the Devils fans that showed oh so much class by booing J-S Giguere when he won the Conn Smythe (which he by far deserved). Come on guys, even the Devils players rightly applauded for him, and it’s not like J-S made a big show, he immediately skated off the ice practically in tears. I mean come on, would you rather win the Cup or the Smythe?
And even as a huge hockey fan, I am getting to the point where I hope the NHL labor dispute wipes out at least one entire season. There is so much wrong with the league it’s not even funny.
No scoring. Why? Gee, where to start? Too many damn teams. Goalie equipment that is out of control despite rules on the books. Clutching, grabbing, trapping, despite rules on the books. The game needs a major overhaul to keep it watchable.
Salaries. The NHL is almost as bad (and maybe even worse depending on how you look at it) in terms of competitive balance. Let’s see: 4 teams have won the last 9 Cups, and 3 teams have won 8 of the last 9. Meanwhile, in the NFL where they have hardcore revenue sharing and a tough but fair salary cap, 7 teams have won the last 8 Super Bowls. The NHL needs to keep its salaries in line with its status as a sport, and needs to do more to create parity. A salary cap will help that a lot.
Ticket prices. Good lord, try sitting in even a halfway decent seat at an NHL game for under $50. For a talented team, it’s pretty tough. I’ll take the AHL any day–people around here bitch sometimes that it costs near $18 to sit in practically the front row (for a team that has set AHL attendance records the past few seasons).
Gary Bettman. This guy is a total dumbass. How about Mario Lemieux divests his share in the Penguins (oh hell, let him keep it, look at Bud Selig) and let him be commish?
I agree 100%
If the NHL got even close to the amount of TV revenue that the NFL did, then this revenue sharing would probably not even be an issue. Also the same with the salary cap.
One of many things I like about the NFL, is that they seem to change the rules to adjust with the present times on a yearly basis. The NHL waits until it’s a crisis before they even consider doing that.
Too bad, it was a more convincing angle than what follows.
Frankly, I’m baffled by this. Why would checking fall by the wayside? Playing the body (cleanly) would still be more effective than playing the puck in many instances, so we’d continue to see players pancaked into the boards. I can’t see why there would be any connection between the prevalence of holding/hooking and the prevalence of hitting. Why would the whistle blow for any contact? I suggested calling holding and hooking, not making up new penalties for Squeezing the Winger Against the Boards so He Can’t Get By, or Leaving Some Idiot Dazed and Sprawling Because He Was Too Stupid to Keep His Head up Coming Across the Ice.
And yes, speed would become more valuable in a player. So? This is a good thing, not a bad thing. So some guys would have to retire a couple years early because they lost a step without developing other talents. Big deal. Are you suggesting that less talented players deserve to be in the NHL just because they used to be better? Truly talented players will still have long careers, because speed still won’t be the only thing - The Great One was no rocket, just for example. Strategy will still be plenty important.
Did you watch the recent Olympics? It was much better hockey than the Cup finals, and the difference isn’t explained by talent disparity or by ice size. Sure, those have a bit to do with it, but the big difference is that the players were better behaved. They played cleaner. And it was better hockey. Was there contact? Was there contact??? Sheesh, was there a single Team Canada game where several opponents didn’t get their bell rung but good?
Of course, it would also help if the NHL went to a single-elimination postseason like football, too. Then I’m sure you’d see some variance in who won the Cup.
Of course, there’s also basketball which has a team salary cap, an individual player salary cap and a luxury tax and it’s one of the least varied sports in terms of who wins the championship each year.
Salary caps just save owners money.
Because speed would become the premier ability in a player. Not overnight but over a period of time the coaches and owners would realize that the best way to take advantage of the fact that no one could ever get away with a hold or an interference is to pick up the fastest skating players possible so they can blow by the other teams checkers and nullify their whole defensive strategy, which would domino until all teams had nothing but the fastest skaters possible in all positions. Why would a coach put a Chara or a Stevens into the lineup when even the other teams defensemen could skate circles around him before he could even hope to line up a clean hit or make a good poke check?
I’d like to see some changes to the game for the better too, but I don’t believe that altering the frequency of calls by the ref’s is the way to do it. Forcing the ref’s to be more consistent might help perhaps, but not completely eliminating what’s become as much a part of the game as the after goal celebration.
What made the Great One so great was that he could do what he did while being hooked and tripped and interfered with.
Maybe my memory is fuzzy, or I’m just being nostalgic but it seems to me there was considerably less hooking back in the Great One’s heydays.
If this scenario happened, then you would still need players with grit and size like LeClair, Primeu, Roberts, Bertuzzi, Thornton, and others, who would go to the front of the net, take abuse, and still be strong enough to pot a rebound or tip it in.
Also d-men with size like Chara, would be a great bonus for a team. Plus it doesn’t matter how skilled or fast you are against Stevens, if you put your head down for a second then it’s lights out!!
Yup. Jersey=Hell.
YEAH Devils!!!
We’re suffering from this crap right now in the finals…and if they did call traveling, the scores would be in the 35-45 range 
Plus, if the Nets do end up winning, you can be sure I’ll be here next week damning them to hell.
I’ll be damning the Spurs to hell if they lose. Goddam. I mean, I’m a Lakers fan, but to see a Western Conference team lose to the NBA JV squad? Jesus, how embarassing. Make no mistake, if the Nets do win the Finals, it’s only because of freak accidents and injuries to the real Western Conference teams.
This whole postseason should have a giant asterisk next to it in the history books. It’s like the US winning a World Cup that France, Germany, Brasil and Argentina couldn’t make because of freak plane accidents - it’s nice, but it doesn’t mean squat.