The NHL General Manager meetings are taking place this week in Florida. This is a time for discussion about the state of hockey and what can be done to improve it. In most years these conversations are fruitless and the ideas are not practical and do not address the obvious flaws in the sport.
Yesterday the discussion centered around ideas that could be implemented in 5 to 10 years in order to improve the product.
Quotes are from this associated press article
Their first idea?
Only one faceoff circle in the offensive zone right in the middle of the slot. What?
"We always talk about creating rules to create offense, create offense," Treliving said. "And we give it to our coaches and 10 minutes later they've figured out a way to kill that idea. "But if you find a way to limit defense and instead of giving them tools for the toolbox take a few out. We spent a lot of time on that today."
Put this one next to making goalie pants smaller. It isn’t going to make a damn bit of difference.
General Managers can keep trying to bend over backwards in an attempt to find something creative and useful to increase scoring, but year after year they ignore the obvious. Just call penalties like you did in the 2005-06 season! It worked. The sport was fun. Goals were up. That’s it. Problem solved. If you don’t believe me I did an entire study about it backed up evidence
The scoring problem in the NHL is directly related to how they call penalties. I show that here https://t.co/BW9TQi5pLB
— Ryan Wilson (@GunnerStaal) February 5, 2017
At first there will be a ton of power plays. Ultimately you don’t want the sport to be overloaded with special teams. However, players will adjust to the standard and as a result they will take less penalties. That in turn will lead to a more free flowing even-strength product and isn’t that what we all want?
Stop coming up with all these stupid ideas and just call the rule book. For the life of me I can’t understand why we waste time every year coming up with “out of the box… ideas when the easiest solution has been in the box the entire time.
There was finally a discussion about a 3-2-1 point system for the standings. Hallelujah. However, not everybody likes logic
"I'm not one who is personally in favor of three-point games," Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Lou Lamoriello said. "But I'm also not in favor of getting a point if you don't win. I'd rather see the game be 2-and-0 or end up in a tie 1-and-1. Just end up in a tie the way it used to be."New Jersey Devils general manager Ray Shero thought the game would be played differently if the stakes for points were changed.
"If it's going to make the game better or more interesting I'd be all for it," Shero said.
The current system is idiotic. Every game isn’t worth the same amount of standings points. That should have been a non-starter the second it was proposed a decade ago. It is embarrassing that some games are worth a total of three points while others are only two.
Going back to ties is rubbish. It is not necessary. Make every game worth three points and reward regulation wins. It is yet another situation where the solution is so obvious and the league can’t get out of its own way.
Playing for overtime has been a drain on the product over the years. Instead of teams trying to win a closely contested game right up until the end of the third period they have gone into shells in an attempt to get a loser point. The 3-2-1 system will reward a team that continues to try and push the play for a goal. This is what we should want as fans of the sport. There is a tangible reward for the teams for doing so.
The problem with a 3-2-1 system is that it will put a damper on the league’s false parity that they have fallen in love with.
"The game's in pretty good shape right now," McPhee said, "so this is more about what the game might look like down the road."
Scoring is down and so are the amount of penalties being called. We barely have players reaching 100 points or 40 goals. It’s embarrassing. The game is not in “good… shape. Apathy has taken over and the product has suffered.
Just call some damn penalties and call it a day. You’ll have more time to drink and golf.
Thanks for reading!