NHL eager to play by new rules — on the ice
There’s been a lot of talk about making the game more exciting, opening up the game, bringing back the offense that was there in the 1980s and early 1990s. It’s going to be a lot more exciting when the NHL comes back. It’s going to be a great game with, hopefully, a lot more scoring and a lot of offense…and (less) clutching and grabbing.
- Mario Lemieux
With the 2004-05 NHL season having just been given last rites and buried for the second time, it’s difficult to look ahead to the possibilities of hockey being played this coming October. It COULD happen, though, and if there is a God, it will. Of course, no one at this point can say with any degree of certainty if the NHL will return with NHL players or replacements, but it is beginning to look as if the game itself may look quite a bit different. For those of us familiar with what the game of hockey has become, this will be a very good thing.
One of the biggest frustrations with the NHL product these days is the ubiquitous obstruction: clutching, grabbing, neutral-zone traps, etc. All of these things suck the life and beauty out of the fastest, most exciting game on the planet. Many wags have labelled the NHL “WWE on Ice”, and it’s a label that is difficult to argue with. The one silver lining to come out of the lockout may be the NHL recognizing and taking advantage of the opportunity they have to restore the speed, the action, and the beauty to the game. No, we’re not talking glowing pucks or 3-minute minor penalties, but something clearly needs to be done.
PITTSBURGH — The changes might be drastic enough to tempt 44-year-old Wayne Gretzky into coming out of retirement.
After years of lobbying for a more scoring-friendly and fan-appealing league, Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux is convinced the NHL is ready to grant his wish. The only problem is ending the lockout that has doomed this NHL season and could threaten another before owners and players agree on a labor contract.
The 39-year-old Lemieux hopes he has some more goals left in him when it happens, now that the league seems determined to crack down on the on-ice mugging and the defend-every-inch-of-ice defenses that have made NHL shootouts as rare as football single-wing offenses.
The scoring dropoff is so acute that only Tampa Bay’s Martin St. Louis (94 points) had 90 points last season — not even half of Gretzky’s 215 in 1985-86 or Lemieux’s 199 in 1988-89. In only 10 years, the NHL has seen its goals-per-game average drop from seven to five.
With the NHL desperate to rebuild its fan base and increase national TV ratings that were lower than Arena Football’s, commissioner Gary Bettman is promising drastic rules changes to bring back the speed, flow and offensive rhythm that have been missing since Gretzky was in his prime.
The first thing the NHL should do is to outlaw the neutral zone trap and the left wing lock, two defensive strategies designed to allowed less talented teams to slow down offensive stars and reduce fast-break hockey to the equivalent of the four-corner offense. Some of the proposed changes include:
- Shootouts to decide overtime ties
- Wider blue lines to increase the size of the neutral zone
- Less distance between the nets and the end boards
- Smaller goaltending gear
- No-touch icing
- Tag-up offsides
For those of you who don’t know what all this means, let me know, and I’ll happily explain it to you. The short version is that these changes should increase the speed of the game and, more importantly, scoring. A premium will be put on speed and offense, instead of the current product, which looks like fourth-divison English League soccer on skates.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, however. The NHL still has miles to go before it puts it’s product on the ice come mid-October. I’m going to take a wait-and-see attitude, because it is entirely possible that hockey may not return. I don’t think this a likely scenario, and perhaps it’s a pessimistic view, but you don’t lose an entire season to optimism.
Game on? Don’t get your hopes up just yet.
Site Navigation