Ice Hockey: NHL

I have been a huge hockey fan for a long time and it's quite obvious how the game has changed over the years. Do you like the direction the game is heading? I think the three things that people go to the games to see are goals, hits, and fights and all three are way down.

The goals I can see somewhat because the defense and goaltending seem to be much better, I dont think we'll ever see seasons like some players had in the 80's. Gretzky with 215 points and Mario in the high 100's every year. This year Naslund's 104 points leads the entire league with one game left.

Hits were down in the beginning of the season because of all the penalties that were being called, but the hitting seems to be back to normal, especially now that it's playoff time.

Is fighting still legal? You hardly see fights anymore and that is one of the aspects of the game that people love to see. I'm not sure why the league is trying to get away from fighting, do you see how the crowd gets when there is a fight? Attendance is way down and I think this has alot to do with it. I dont see anything wrong with fighting, it is good for the fans and it gets the teams pumped up and makes the game more intense. I've watched every Flyers game this year and I think Donald Brashear has more points than fights, granted he is a decent player, but he's known as a fighter. If I want to see a good fight I have to throw in one of my fight tapes from the older days. What do you guys think about fighting?

The direction of hockey in my opinion is at a weird state right now. Everything like you said seem to be down, fighting you rarely see anymore and hits seem to not happen.
One of the main reasons i think that the goal scoring is down is because the goalies have new equipment and there are new styles, and plus they are faster and bigger than they were in the golden ages. I think that some of the goalies in the league now are using bigger pads that they should be. There has been talk of making the nets bigger to increase scoring but that would not be right. What the NHL officals should do is make some kindof rule agaisnt the size of the equipment so that scoring goes up, but the net size stays the same.
The fighting and hitting probably has gone down, because the pentaly system has changes. There are rules so that the players are now protected more than ever. And when players do try to get into fights the refs break it up. What the refs should do is just let the players play. And call penalty's that are obvious, and not stupid ones. If players get into fights let them fight whats the worse that can happen they might lose some teeth.

I dont think anybody will have the same seasons as Gretzky and Mario, they were the best players the NHL has ever seen and it will probably be that way for a while. Nobody is really standing out. The NHL should sit down and see what they can do to increase attendance cause that is way some clubs are in money trouble. Fans only want teams to win and if they dont win they wont go to the games. If the NHL changes the penatly system around and let the players play and change the goalie pads around, the league could see and increase in attendance and overall revenue. Thats it they do that.

Time for a return to old time hockey.

Hockey is not a glory sport. It's not for millionaire pretty boys.

20 years ago, hockey had character. Color. Personality.

Sure there were goons, but they had character, they were interesting... because the sport is tough... it takes an attitude unlike any other sport.

Old time hockey.

Anyone remember the French Connection?

Originally posted by William
Anyone remember the French Connection?

Are you talking about the old Buffalo Sabres line from the 70's? I was born in '70 so I dont remember them too well but I have heard about them, didn't they make a movie?

How about the Broad Street Bullies of the 70's? Dave "The Hammer" Schultz was a maniac, I have some good tapes of the fights in the old days. Remember the bench clearing brawls, man I never get tired of watching them.

We thought the world was coming to an end with Big Number 4 came to the Sabres! He was a goon's goon though. Just before he retired, he opened a disco in the suburbs of Buffalo with a big flashing number 4 underneath the clear dance floor.

The French Connection... Rene Robert, Gilbert Perault, Rick Martin. Gilbert was the fastest skater of his era... his signature "move" was to wind-up behind the Sabres net, weave down the ice blowing past anyone (with great stick-handling at speed too... something you don't see anymore), sweeping behind the opposition net, and stuffing the puck in the opposite side before the goalie could move across. It was poetry.

Hockey was the sport of graceful hammer-hands who could knock you senseless with a well-planted skate and hip-check, just as much as they could pirouette past you before you knew they were near.

All that is gone in a senseless rules-ridden league that has taken the life out of a sport that Howard Cossell once called, " One of the only sports I can image that can be best described as watching brutal beautiful poetry." My, how the world misses Howard.

[Edited on 6-4-2003 by William]

Yes, the NHL is like night and day from the old days. I think the money these guys make might have alot to do with it and the rule changes also have put a burden on the entertainment aspect of the game. In the good old days, players were able to police on their own, protect their stars with tough physical play, and were intimidating. Nowadays the league protects their precious stars and its known you risk suspension if you get a little out of line. I think they should go back to letting players protect themselves, if you take a cheap shot at someone you are more afraid of the retribution than the suspension.

The NHL should go back to the good-old days, but that wont probably happen. When players got hammered back then there would be the retribution of the teamates, and isnt that why the teams have the enforcers on their team to make sure that none of their players get hurt. But now and days you dont see the retribution they are afraid of getting suspended the only fights you see are letting scrums. And those are when players poke at the goalies.

NOw and days all you really see on hockey is the fancy stick handling and passing. There are not that many hits, and when there are hits its not that ones that make you cringe. Its kindof funny though when they show the check of the game it is usually a hit that is not even worth watching. What ever happened to the big hits i used to love watching those.

The Salary Cap is great to have in the NHL, not all the good players will be on one team anymore. the league is going to be equal and the games will be a lot better to watch.

i am an old time hockey fan who hasn't watched a game in years, what i think would make the sport better would be...

1 reduce the number of teams in the league, with so many teams the rivalries are lost, along with a lot of the interest

2 take the curves out of the sticks, this is supposed to be hockey, not lacrosse

3 remove the facemasks, let me recognize the players by something other than the numbers on their jerseys

4 let the players play, too many whistles, too many do's and dont's, let the skaters skate and the hitters hit

5 get players whose names i can pronnounce

6 let all the original 6 teams make the playoffs

i realize that it is a new era that we are in and that these changes will never be made, just my 2 cents

toejam, you want to improve the game? One easy step, CALL DIVING PENALTIES. It would only take half of a season to get it through to the player and that one move alone would speed up the game. Jeez, I remember when people fought through check, as opposed to drawing penalties.

Originally posted by truenorth
toejam, you want to improve the game? One easy step, CALL DIVING PENALTIES. It would only take half of a season to get it through to the player and that one move alone would speed up the game. Jeez, I remember when people fought through check, as opposed to drawing penalties.

diving penalties are the biggest problem now in the NHL you see all the dives when you watch but none of them are ever called

The one thing that might need some work are shootouts
Not that I don't like the shootout, I have been use to the shootout because the ECHL (team from reading is in this league) has had the shootout for a while, but in the ECHL they don't have to give a line-up for shooters like the NHL and they have 5 rounds in stead of 3