The best comment I heard was from a casual fan who watched a playoff game...first hockey game in a long time... he said this unprompted and without prior discussion of scoring or anything like that...

It looks like a wrestling match

No, this wasn't during an after the whistle incident either...it was during play with the puck being moved up ice.

I believe today's scoring problems are largely the result of interference (hooking, holding, grabbing too) that no longer gets called.

The game has become a perimeter game for so many teams...guys with their backs to the center of ice, trying to protect the puck along the boards. It's terribly boring to watch that...over and over again.

Call the rules...there will be more power plays to start...but then guys will adjust and the play will be more entertaining to watch at all times.

I am also not against enlarging the nets as mentioned many times before.

I get the whole argument about tradition and that goalies would have to adjust...but it would be the same for every player on every team. I don't think it would be such a big deal...aside from the tv broadcasters telling us every time a goal is scored that wouldn't have gone in before the nets were bigger.

Tighten up on size of goalie equipment and go to Olympic ice. Done.

Goalie gear needs to be trimmed back. This can easily be done without compromising player safety.

Really, the NHL should consider full-time 4 on 4. The rink size hasn't changed in a 100 years, but players now are far larger, stronger, faster than ever. Add 4 on-ice officials and it's really clogged up out there. Players are in danger of colliding with teammates and getting injured because at full speed, they're watching for the puck, opponents, refs and the boards & net. All that teams would need to do is drop essentially their 4th line, so players who don't have the talent to be in the league anyway.
This will eventually happen as players get bigger. The league is already considering 3 0n 3 in OT. That will lead to more offence for sure.

don't get this obsession with goal scoring.

we're in the midst of one of the most exciting playoffs in a long time.

all the games save for a handful have been tight, teams are coming back from deficits in games and series, lots of scoring chances.

only thing I'd be ok with is the freaking goalie equipment but other than that leave it the (frank) alone.
- dt99999

Except for the fact that last year trumps this years playoff by a large margin. The first round was awful and second is marginally better.

Tighten up on size of goalie equipment and go to Olympic ice. Done.
- brienstel

I think changing the Arena Size/Rink Size is the one thing that will never be considered. Some arenas would lose seating, or can't make the change, blah blah blah, that one screams can of worms to me.

Anything else from these suggestions is fair game pretty much.

Goalie gear needs to be trimmed back. This can easily be done without compromising player safety.

Really, the NHL should consider full-time 4 on 4. .
- haymac

wtf.

I feel, personally, that power plays are boring hockey. It's 9 guys in a more or less stationary position. Even strength hockey results in more movement, and more back-and forth motion. I'd rather watch a 2-1 game where it's mostly 5-on-5 that a 6-4 game where there are 9 PP goals. To me, offense does not equate to "good hockey."

Edit: And no, I don't want a game where you can jump on a guy on a breakaway and have nothing called. But I don't want the NHL calling every single slight infraction as per the letter of the rulebook, because it's impossible to avoid penalties no matter how hard players try.
- jmatchett383

I think you're missing the point of why you enforce the rules already in place more strictly, it isn't about generating more powerplays but moreso about eliminating the infractions which in turn will open the ice at even strength which will create a more exciting product regardless of the overall production.

Sure there will be an adjustment period like there was in '05-'06 where more penalties will be called while the players adjust to how the game is being called but the result, much like it was in '05-'06, will be that the players will adjust how they player so that they aren't hurting their team by spending half the game in the penaltybox. What will we then see is more 5on5 play where skilled players are actually able to use their skill to create open ice without being obstructed, which in turn will create more excitement and more scoring opportunities at even strength. Exactly like it did in '05'06.

-Actually call penalties
-Decrease G pad size
-severe punishment for dangerous hits
-eliminate the pt for an OT loss
-bigger nets/olympic rink size

Ryan Wilson: NHLPA Agrees With You, NHL Needs More Scoring
NHLPA Agrees With You, NHL Needs More Scoring
- Ryan_Wilson

More scoring is not the problem.

I have seen 2-1 games that were ridiculously exciting... If you have been watching the MTL / T-Bay series, you know what I am talking about. The problem is the trapping and hooking and slowing down the play, resulting in 2-1 snoozers with few scoring chances.

The only reason the NHLPA wants more scoring is so they can push 3rd/4th line players into the $5-6M a year salary range, cause they will score a little more often, and moving star players into the $10-13M a year range.

The NHLPA does not give a poop about hockey, they only give a poop about creating an environment where players make as much money as possible, no matter if it destroys the game.

Cutting back goalie equipment seems irrelevant. Price set the gold standard this season for goaltenders and he takes up a lot less space than Bishop or Rinne. Long gone are the days of Garth Snow and his winged shoulder pads.

Helmets are incredibly thin due to better quality materials.

We cannot place a max size on chest protector width because some guys are bigger or have bigger arms. Thickness compromises safety and doesn't impact coverage area.

Leg pads have already been reduced and we didn't see any change. At some point we cannot reduce them due to varying leg sizes of the guys wearing them.

We might be able to reduce the blocker but again, hand sizes vary. I'm sure Ben Bishop has monster paws.

Gloves are similar to blockers. We might be able to trim the webbing slightly but anyone who has worn a glove and faced an NHL shot will tell you...it hurts already.

All of this might net what? Maybe a 1% increase in shooting pct? So maybe we see an extra goal for every 2 games played?

Get rid of the clutch and grab nonsense and call the rules we already have. More quality chances equal not just more goals but a better product on the ice.

Except for the fact that last year trumps this years playoff by a large margin. The first round was awful and second is marginally better.
- nelson911

Ive watched more other playoff games this year than in a long time. To be honest, I dont find it that entertaining.

Buyout possibilities:

http://penslabyrinth.com/...uins-buyout-implications/

Cutting back goalie equipment seems irrelevant. Price set the gold standard this season for goaltenders and he takes up a lot less space than Bishop or Rinne. Long gone are the days of Garth Snow and his winged shoulder pads.

Helmets are incredibly thin due to better quality materials.

We cannot place a max size on chest protector width because some guys are bigger or have bigger arms. Thickness compromises safety and doesn't impact coverage area.

Leg pads have already been reduced and we didn't see any change. At some point we cannot reduce them due to varying leg sizes of the guys wearing them.

We might be able to reduce the blocker but again, hand sizes vary. I'm sure Ben Bishop has monster paws.

Gloves are similar to blockers. We might be able to trim the webbing slightly but anyone who has worn a glove and faced an NHL shot will tell you...it hurts already.

All of this might net what? Maybe a 1% increase in shooting pct? So maybe we see an extra goal for every 2 games played?

Get rid of the clutch and grab nonsense and call the rules we already have. More quality chances equal not just more goals but a better product on the ice.
- Maskdman3

I don't see how restricting pad size will be anymore enforceable than restricting players from blocking shots. Like you said, players are different sizes and no one can definitively say what is the appropriate universal size for much of the goalie equipment. Enforcing the rules as they are and having the oval shaped posts/crossbars that deflect pucks into the net would probably be the most reasonable solutions to low scoring.

The NHL has succeeded in reducing its game to a slug fest between 3rd and 4th line grit players. Star players are not promoted or protected. The NFL is successful because they promote offense and skill over grit.

I see many comments about the nobility of shot blocking. Have you seen the shin guards lately. They are body armor; there is not much nobility there.

Also, officiating is ridiculous. The amount of off-puck interference is staggering.

Goalie sweaters should be form-fitting.

I still watch if it is on and I am able to devote the time. I do, however, spend the majority of that time wondering why such and such play was not called a penalty.

https://mtc.cdn.vine.co/r...QsxW7hZck8Yh3el38RlnWhXYf

I hope I did that right, I've never tried posting a video on here before but right there is what's wrong with the NHL right now and simply eliminating that will open the game up and make it so much more exciting. Maybe I'm just a different breed of fan but I can't see how watching Stamkos get raped from the top of 1 circle to the top of the next is exciting or considered good defense.

[/img]

don't get this obsession with goal scoring.

we're in the midst of one of the most exciting playoffs in a long time.

all the games save for a handful have been tight, teams are coming back from deficits in games and series, lots of scoring chances.

only thing I'd be ok with is the freaking goalie equipment but other than that leave it the (frank) alone.
- dt99999

I have to strongly disagree, in over 30 years of watching the Stanely Cup playoffs these have been by far the hardest games to watch. The games have been tight because neither team is doing anything not because they are playing good hockey. A game being close doesn't make it exciting in itself, how they actually play the close game is what makes it exciting.

I have to strongly disagree, in over 30 years of watching the Stanely Cup playoffs these have been by far the hardest games to watch. The games have been tight because neither team is doing anything not because they are playing good hockey. A game being close doesn't make it exciting in itself, how they actually play the close game is what makes it exciting.
- jaydogg1974

Again, guess it depends on the games you are watching.

Habs/T-Bay series has had a load of scoring chances (even in the 2-1 games) and 2 blow-outs.

Scoring chances, not more goals, make the games exciting to me - a 2-1 games can be just as, if not more, exciting than a 5-4 game.

The NHL should be focused on creating an environment that generates more scoring chances, not necessarily goals, because 5-4 game full of hooking and traps is still a boring (and likely a result of bad goaltending).

The best comment I heard was from a casual fan who watched a playoff game...first hockey game in a long time... he said this unprompted and without prior discussion of scoring or anything like that...

It looks like a wrestling match

No, this wasn't during an after the whistle incident either...it was during play with the puck being moved up ice.

I believe today's scoring problems are largely the result of interference (hooking, holding, grabbing too) that no longer gets called.

The game has become a perimeter game for so many teams...guys with their backs to the center of ice, trying to protect the puck along the boards. It's terribly boring to watch that...over and over again.

Call the rules...there will be more power plays to start...but then guys will adjust and the play will be more entertaining to watch at all times.

I am also not against enlarging the nets as mentioned many times before.

I get the whole argument about tradition and that goalies would have to adjust...but it would be the same for every player on every team. I don't think it would be such a big deal...aside from the tv broadcasters telling us every time a goal is scored that wouldn't have gone in before the nets were bigger.
- icedog97

This!

What Ryan blogged about here would not be a return to the eighties or turn hockey into indoor lacrosse. An initiative like we saw in 12-13 would be sufficient to reverse the current trend. The league began in the preseason by announcing they would be cracking down on obstruction/interference. The officials began calling it aggressively that pre season and then consistently in the regular season. Yes, the calls did drop off in the playoffs that year but teams had already adjusted enough clutch and grab was less prevalent.

After that season Stephen Walkom left the ice and became Director of Officiating. I don't know if there is a correlation but the entire initiative disappeared. By the post season of 14 clutch and grab was back on in full force. The numbers do not lie and the calls started arcing down and now they are really spiking down. Look at called penalties from last year's playoffs to this year's. It is a travesty.

I have no interest in euro style hockey but this trend is seriously hurting the NHL.

I have to strongly disagree, in over 30 years of watching the Stanely Cup playoffs these have been by far the hardest games to watch. The games have been tight because neither team is doing anything not because they are playing good hockey. A game being close doesn't make it exciting in itself, how they actually play the close game is what makes it exciting.
- jaydogg1974

I remember it being painfully bad to watch during the dead-puck era too. Though this is equally unenjoyable to me.

Responses from some of the posts...

1. Larger ice surface doesn't help solve the issue. Teams will still keep skaters to the perimeter. The larger ice doesn't expand the core scoring area. All you had to do was watch this past Olympics to see that in action.

2. We all understand that some 2-1 games are indeed exciting. But, overall, larger sample size, they aren't as good as most 5-4 or 4-3 games.

Buyout possibilities:

http://penslabyrinth.com/...uins-buyout-implications/
- joescullz

Anyone who wants the Pens to exercise a buyout needs to read this.

Buying out any of Kunitz, Duper, or Scuds is pure idiocy and shortsightedness.

We have some guys from Toronto in my company. We talk hockey a lot. Whats interesting is the type of player they remember most from the Leafs. Mats Sundin who I believe is the all time Leaf scorer is brushed over for guys like Clark, Gilmore etc....blue collar guys that played a chippy game and stepped up their game when needed. Not the Jagr's, or highly skilled guys. I think you see that mentality with how the game is officiated. 3/4 line guys get praised over letting the overly skilled guys use their skill. WHich is sad. Look at the NFL, old records are always challenged rather that be passing, rushing, TD's....keeps the game exciting. Watching 71 and 87 hoping to be 30g scorers just blows.

Responses from some of the posts...

1. Larger ice surface doesn't help solve the issue. Teams will still keep skaters to the perimeter. The larger ice doesn't expand the core scoring area. All you had to do was watch this past Olympics to see that in action.

2. We all understand that some 2-1 games are indeed exciting. But, overall, larger sample size, they aren't as good as most 5-4 or 4-3 games.
- 87_71_11_29

1. It will help solve the issue. If you look at particles in a contained area when heated it is plan as day to see that there is less contact between particles given a bigger area. In addition, when you give each particle a great area to travel it will travel a greater distance and in doing so give other particles more varied space to move in its absence. This will result in great variability on the ice and more choices for players to both make plays and make mistakes.

2. Agreed. I don't mind 2-1 games. The problem is mostly the game, i agree with the dissension among fans, but the mentality and attention span of viewers is shorter than 10 years ago. Is the game completely at fault or are we becoming impatient entertainment fiends that want action more than strategy and gamesmanship? Probably both.

Anyone who wants the Pens to exercise a buyout needs to read this.

Buying out any of Kunitz, Duper, or Scuds is pure idiocy and shortsightedness.
- 87_71_11_29

They're all perfect deadline tradables. They all have the marquee characteristics that teams over pay for: winning pedigree, cup winners, veteran whatever, steady, play up and down the lineup (exception of Scuds - he plays up and down from the press box).

They're all great deadline players that can help restock with picks.

I don't see how restricting pad size will be anymore enforceable than restricting players from blocking shots. Like you said, players are different sizes and no one can definitively say what is the appropriate universal size for much of the goalie equipment. Enforcing the rules as they are and having the oval shaped posts/crossbars that deflect pucks into the net would probably be the most reasonable solutions to low scoring.
- jfkst1

Goalie pads are what? 12 inches across?
So they "protect" the elephant legs or human ones?