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But with
scoring down, are NHL rules dimming their light?
When the world’s top hockey
players arrive in St. Paul for the 54th annual All Star Game there will
be plenty of hype surrounding the game including events and activities
for all hockey fans in the state of hockey, regardless of whether or not
they are lucky enough to have tickets.
At venues surrounding the Xcel Energy Center fans will be able to participate
in activities ranging from the ice castle to interactive hockey games
where the NHL is even sponsoring skills competitions. At various sites,
kids can shoot pucks against makeshift goalies, stick handle around stationary
objects and test their shot speed, perhaps with one of those one-piece
composite sticks if there happens to be one available.
All of this activity sponsored by the NHL surrounds the most exciting
aspects of the game: quickness, shooting, dangling and scoring. These
are all parts of the game that players love to perfect and fans love to
cheer for. But it seems over the past several seasons that we are seeing
less and less of this in the game. So as the world’s best players
arrive in St. Paul for the All Star Game, it begs the question of whether
there is a lack of offense in the game.
For our hometown Wild, there was a stretch of seven games in late November
and early December when the Wild scored a total of 7 goals and the opponents
scored 8. A total of 15 goals in 7 games isn’t what you would expect
from the game’s greatest players.
“The game is pretty tight right now,” said Brett Hull, who is
no stranger to All Star Games and who is currently third among all-time
goal scorers. “You really have to work hard to develop good scoring
chances, and right now there are some rules that I think could be called
differently to free things up a bit.”
In the previous three seasons six players scored 100 or more points and
over the past seven seasons, 11 players scored 100 or more points. Compare
this to prior years (excluding the ’94-’95 strike season) and
you can find a minimum of eight players each season with 100 or more points.
Last season Peter Forsberg led all scorers with 106 points. Looking back
10 years and further, there were 10 players with 106 points or more.
Taking those numbers and unscientifically assuming that half the points
were amassed by the mid season All Star break, the pace should be 50 points
or more when the players arrive in St. Paul for the All Star Game. With
little more than a week left before the break, there were only a handful
of players on pace to hit the century mark including Atlanta’s Ilya
Kovalchuk, Detroit’s Pavel Datsyuk, Washington’s Robert Lang,
and Vancouver’s Markus Naslund.
Is there a scoring issue in the NHL and are the fans being treated to
rules that allow the best players to showcase their talents?
“You are always looking for ways to improve your product. If we don’t
look at different things that might make our game better, we are burying
our head in the sand,” said Paul Holmgren, a 1981 NHL All Star and
currently the assistant general manager for the Philadel-phia Flyers.
“It is an entertainment business right now and we as a league need
to look at anything and everything that might improve the game.”
So what are those potential improvements? There are many and varying opinions
on what to do to create more excitement in the game.
“I think what we need to improve is scoring chances, not just scoring,”
said Holmgren. “If you get more scoring chances more than likely
you will get more goals. I don’t think we have to do a lot of drastic
things, but we do have to explore our options.”
For most, those options include exploring a few key areas of potential
change.
Goaltender Equipment
“You look at old footage of goal-tenders, like Ken Dryden when he
came out of college, his pads and equipment looked pretty small compared
to some of the stuff
the guys are wearing now,” said Holmgren. “I think that is some-thing
we really need to focus on. I know there are good goaltenders now and
great athletes, but do they need all that equipment?”
Minnesota agent Neil Sheehy agrees. “The rules haven’t kept
up with regards to goaltending equip-ment,” said Sheehy. “The
goalie equipment has gotten lighter over time. It doesn’t fall apart
as much and they are covering more space. The goaltenders are quicker
and faster because the equipment is lighter and getting bigger instead
of getting smaller.
Let’s cut down the equipment and make the athleticism of the goaltender
be the determining factor on whether they stop the puck, as opposed to
just good positional play and big padding allowing pucks to hit goaltenders.”
Removing The Red
“Herb Brooks was always a pro-ponent of taking the red line out,”
said Sheehy. “Many NHL people think the defensemen would just adjust,
but my view is that if the defensemen have to back off then teams will
generate more speed through the neutral zone and will catch defensemen
standing still. If the defensemen get up the way they do now that will
stretch out the play and will get more breakaways and more exciting plays.
To me, that’s at least an option that should be tested, at least
in the American Hockey League. I think taking the red line out on a smaller
rink will definitely make the game faster.”
“I’m not sure [about the effect of removing the red line],”
said Holmgren. “I’m an old-school hockey guy in terms of the
NHL anyway, and I’m not sure that would open it up or not. Our coaches
are so good, they would come up with a way to defend against that, too.”
Net Effects
While opinions differ on removing the red line, the idea of moving the
goal line back from its current position 13 feet from the end boards seems
to be widely accepted.
“The last time I checked you can’t score when the puck is behind
the net,” said Sheehy. “When they put more room behind the net
it just means that the puck is behind the net longer.”
This translates into less scoring opportunities.
“I would like to see the goal lines moved back to where they were
years ago,” said George McPhee, Vice President and General Manager
of the Washington Capitols. “We spend too much time cycling the puck
in the corner and not generating scoring chances. I think when the nets
are farther back, guys can walk out and create scoring chances that are
hard to do now.
“If there is a way to improve the flow of the game we would like
to see that. We would like to see more scoring chances. We don’t
neces-sarily need to see more goals – games can be really entertaining
as long as there are chances and flow. In baseball, if you see a no-hitter
or a perfect game, that’s pretty unique and it’s interesting
to watch once every four or five months. But if you are seeing three to
four shutouts a week, that’s too much.”
More Points
In an effort to get more goals on the scoreboard, ideas are being thrown
around as fast as a Brett Hull one-timer. These include:
• Require a player to serve an entire two-minute penalty. Regardless
of whether or not a power play goal is scored, a player would stay in
the box.
• One of the more extreme ideas was offered from TSN commentator
Pierre McGuire who said rosters should be shortened from 18 to 16 skaters.
This would lengthen sifts and allow the best players more time on the
ice against players of less talent, and ultimately more time to shine.
• Widen the blue line. This would cut down on off-sides calls, and
also make the zones bigger since the puck is always part of the zone that
it is in.
Do you have an idea or rule change on how the NHL can open up the game
so that the All Stars shine? Send us your ideas at mhj@tpgsports.com.
Jim Rich is a sports anchor with
Fox 9 Sports in Minneapolis and is also a youth hockey coach for his son
Patrick’s team in Buffalo.
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