Quote:
I think the fastest way to more offense in the NHL is have the referee call what’s in the rule book. If you break the rules, it’s a penalty. Penalties should be called in the first minute of the game and the last minute of the game. The GM agrees, “Penalties are a huge part of creating offense. The coaches have figured out that if you stay in the middle of the ice, up and down the ice and you collapse and you can get your players to block shots, you come racing home to your home base, you get in the shot lanes, the equipment’s so good you block shots and I think in order to be progressive as a league, we must always have this research department that is trying to figure out how to put the game in its finest form and for me offense is a big part of that.”
I think the NHL should take the area in the slot and make it like the lane in basketball. Put the paint in and make it a violation if you’re in there more than five seconds. That would go for both teams. Darcy Regier said, “With the increased stats we get more information. We know that once you’re outside of a certain area the likelihood of you scoring is just about zero, so defend this area. As more information becomes available, we can’t just be using it for defending, we need to figure out how to use it to create offense, open up the area.”
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Are you kidding me with this? It's not scoring that's the problem; it's what's going on in the game when there's NOT scoring. Which is next to nothing at this point.
Before the last lockout, 2-1 games and 1-1 ties were exciting because they were typically hotly-contested defensive battles with great, physical pace. When you talk about 2-1 contests today, you're looking at a lot of dump and chase, stalemate hockey were most players are afraid to make contact, with a couple scoring chances mixed in. THAT is the big difference. I loved watching those low-scoring games back in the day. It greatly ramped up the intensity, on the ice and in the stands, as everyone knew the next goal could decide the game. Sure, there's still that "next goal wins" vibe in some games, but the difference is everyone twiddles his thumbs and kicks popcorn around on the floor until that goal is scored.
This isn't a mystery.