A Real Fixer Upper

AARYON LYNETT/TORONTO STAR Toronto's Darcy Tucker and New York's Sean Avery get right down to it during a game on Nov. 10, 2007.

On the first day of Pebble Beach deliberations, the NHL board of governors accomplished nothing that will help the league.

Sure, they rubber-stamped the transfer of the Nashville Predators to a new ownership group that will no doubt be back in two or three years with new tales of woes and plans to sell or move the team.

The guvs also voted in a new schedule, which will immediately attract new complaints as soon as the dimwitted understand the league has effectively increased the number of games between unfamiliar opponents at the expense of contests between rivals.

Tell us how you would improve the NHL.

More Preds-Sens and Oilers-Panthers, fewer Flyers-Sens and Oilers-Avalanche. Hmm. Can't wait.

On the second day, perhaps the governors will do better.

The most important item on their agenda should be the state of the game itself, with defence and fighting way up, scoring and excitement way down.

But what to do?

Now that it appears evident that coaches have again shut the game down, erasing the openness initially created by the removal of hooking and interference and the red line, there's nobody who has a terrific idea to fix the game again.

I've said for years they're going to have to increase the size of the nets, but too many non-thinkers still argue it would make a mockery of the NHL record book.

As if goalies the size of airport hangars didn't do that long ago.

Bigger ice will do nothing. The Europeans proved that long ago. Four-on-four would work, probably, but there's no appetite for that.

So at the same time the NHL is trying to figure out a way to win ESPN's heart again, it's got a product that is devolving back into what it was three or four years ago, and what it couldn't sell three or four years ago. The league, sadly, has fallen back to its old reflex of insisting all is well no matter the evidence to the contrary. The best the dinosaurs can offer is that taking the instigator out will make it a more manly league.

After a brief respite, the coaches, goons and goalies are dominating again, and nobody has a great idea how to fix the NHL now that it appears broken again.

Comments

[Don]

We dimwits are mighty pleased with our scheduling success and with the intellectual elite out of ideas on the goal drought, we're offering these thoughts:

1) Smaller goalie gear (if the current goalies are afraid to play in it, maybe there are guys in the minors who aren't)

2) Call icing on shorthanded teams

3) players not be allowed to go down to block shots

4) Reward goal production with a higher salary cap (and lower goals with a lower cap)

5) Encourage selfish play(say 20% of salary has to be for point total bonuses?)

6) Encourage selfish coaching (league bonus to coaches of $100K for each spot his team finishes in goal standings. That would be $3M for 1st & $0 for 30th)

[Adam C]

The biggest problem I have with the old schedule is that playoff qualification depends very little on your division. What good is it to play the Bruins and Sabres eight times each when you're eliminated by the Islanders and Lightning?

It also lowers the quality of playoff teams by making it arbitrarily difficult for good teams who play in tough divisions to qualify.

[T Matthew]

How about calling an illegal defense penalty for trapping. Should help to open the game back up.

[norm depalma]

This has entered the realm of the absurd. How many years to discuss these problems? And only 2 people here have mentioned the only logical solution: CONTRACTION!

Drop the number of teams by 6 and you will have lopped off the bottom 120 players in the league. Drop the number of games to 70 and each player will have the requisite energy to play at his highest capability. The level of play will increase exponentially.

Within 2,3 years, the word will be out. TV contracts will follow. The game will evolve to something similar to NFL's game of the week event. With high def TV, viewers across the US will start to love the NHL too.

Remember the 2002 Olympics ratings. There is an audience out there.

[Rich Thorpe]

Want to improve the NHL? Drop six to 10 teams.
That eliminates a lot of lesser players, provides for hockey in markets that actually care about and can support the game.
Mr. Cox is not quite correct, the league has been trying to appease and appeal to a non-existent American market for 40 years.
It's not working and it never will.
How many companies would still be in business if they continued to flog a product to consumers that no one wanted?
By the time this CBA is up, the teams contributing to revenue sharing will have paid back all of the expansion fees they received from Bettman's ill conceived expansion.

[Scott]

How about reducing the size of the goalie pads, shoulder pads, catching glove and blocker? And, since the players have an escrow account, how about an escrow account for the owners. A fine of $100K if your team does not score at least 3 goals in a game. This $100K comes back to you if your team scores at least 6 goals in a game. The NHL needs more goals.

[Bored]

I agree with Damien TOTALLY! I'm officially bored of hockey. 20 times a season I turn on a game and 2-3 mins later turn it off. I don't think it will ever be fixed. That makes me sad.

[Dave]

Damien,

You say "Bigger ice will do nothing. The Europeans proved that long ago." I disagree. The rules, the style of the game, the players (size, skill, speed, etc.) are all pointing towards needing more room to move, more room to dazzle. The Europeans have not proven anything in this regard because - with due respect to several countries - they just don't have the same amount of skilled players that one finds in the NHL.

The battlezone will always be in front of the net and there will always be room for this type of team play ... grind'em hockey, if you will. But we also need to open things up for the rest of the teams who fancy themselves as strategic, play-making teams. There is a beauty in hockey that is not found in any other sport ... the grace under pressure, the combination of skill and speed that so marks our sport as to make it a dance of warriors. Open up the playing surface and you'll see how these players can move.

Alas, I doubt the owners would go for the idea ... even losing a few seats - especially at ice level - would mean dollars out of pockets and that's not the business they're in. Too bad for us.

[rob]

The NHL now seems to be on constant life support. Whatever is done to improve the game works only temporarily and then breaks down again. maybe the game i've always loved just doesn't work in the 21st century. i don't think the NHL is going to survive as it is. the time has come to pull the plug and let the league pass into history. i think the creation of a new, smaller league would soon happen, probably based mostly in Canada where the game belongs. The single biggest mistake the NHL made was thinking it could be a major player in the North American sports market. The idea was beyond idiotic.

[Lauri Ruosteenoja]

Shrink the goalie equipment. Goalies are't going to like it. But that's only because they like their current stats. Reducing the size of the catching glove - for instance - certainly isn't going to cause any injuries.

I'm pessimistic just like you. The people in charge for the NHL think as dynamically as the former Soviet nomenclatura.

[Nathan]

Do you really mean to tell me you'd rather watch a Boston-Toronto "classic" than see the Leafs make a Western Canadian road trip? You're completely wrong on this one. In reality all that's changing is they're taking 2 games away from each divisional opponent for a total of 8 and increasing the variety of games fans get to watch. I don't even check who the Leafs are playing anymore because most of the time its another divisional game making them quite boring.

Now if only they took away some teams reducing the NHL back to with Florida, Phoenix, Atlanta, Nashville, Carolina and Columbus gone.

[Jeff Iles]

I am sick of the media pretending to be the voice of the fans. Most true fans dont find anything wrong with the game, never did. Sure we could tinker with a few things but nothing drastic like whats been kicked around these days. I for one miss a bit of clutch and grab, fight for the puck hockey. Now a player dives as soon as hes touched..and no red line has made hockey worse...its now like tennis, teams dont have to break out anymore, they dump it to the far blue line to someone that tips it in...yehaaw