MGoBlog wrote a very fascinating article questioning the offsides rule in hockey. Brian argues that calling offsides hurts the flow of the game, by causing a lot of unnecessary face-offs, and hurts offense by making it too easy for the defensive team to clear the zone. The comments are just as good, with a lot of discussion about potential rule changes to improve the game.
I'm not necessarily sure I agree with Brian here. Taking away offsides would cut down on a couple whistles per game. But as was noted in the comments, it would also create a lot of icing calls as teams tried to get the puck out of their zone.
I also think it might even take away from the speed of the game a little bit. Without a blueline keeping all ten skaters in one section of the ice, it would spread everyone out more. There would be a lot more long passes instead of quick, sharp passing. Plus, defenseman wouldn't be forced to try and hold the blueline. They could play much more conservatively and the game would lose a lot of breakaways and odd-man rushes.
To be fair, Brian is a bit more conservative in his suggestions, saying that the blueline should either be made wider, or that hockey should try the "Red Berenson Rule" where once a team crosses the opposing team's blueline, the opposing team must clear the red line in order to clear the zone. I'm not sure how the former would change things, though I think that the latter would be very interesting, especially on powerplays.
Another suggestion that got brought up a lot was making every rink Olympic-sized. I do like the wider ice, but an extra couple feet won't change a lot. The CCHA predominantly uses NHL size rinks, while the WCHA is predominantly Olympic-sized. Last year, the average CCHA team scored 6 more goals in league play than the average WCHA did.(Obviously there are other factors that go into those numbers, but I think you can see that there isn't a big difference in scoring between rink sizes).
Back in the early to mid 1930's, scoring dropped pretty significantly in the NHL. There was a lot of talk various rules playing in a big role of that, but Detroit's legendary coach Jack Adams once told the New York Times, "Talk about the rules keeping down the scoring; it's the goalies who keep it down." Adams also called the drop in scoring one of the "outstanding developments in modern hockey." Of course, two years later in the same paper, Adams was bemoaning the fact that teams got an early lead and played a tremendously boring-paced game to sit on the lead(while simultaneously being known as the greatest perpetrator of said tactics, according to the rest of league).
Anyway, I tend to believe Adams. It's the goalies, stupid. If hockey wants to increase scoring, they should make the nets a little bit bigger, and make goalie pads a lot smaller. We don't need soccer nets, just a couple inches on either side to give players a little more net to look at. Goalie pads have gotten way out of control too. Not only would shrinking them increase scoring, it would allow goalies to show off their athleticism by forcing them to make more acrobatic saves. I know I'd much rather say "Wow, he's quick" instead of, "Wow, he takes up a lot of space".
I know a lot of people cringe when it comes to changing rules to try to make the game "more exciting," but I think it's time for hockey to try something. There's a lot of great things about the game that I think just need a little help to be shown off a little more.
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9 comments:
Well said, minus the point about increasing the net size. That has to be the absolute option of last resort. There's a whole lot of goalie-pad shrinkin' that we can and should do first before we start changing more fundamental aspects of the game.
It's not just pads, either. Gloves are huge, too. I remember Don Cherry ranting about Hasek's glove (since Hasek wears reasonably sized pads) being so big that he didn't even realize he caught the puck in it.
The Olympic ice thing is a non-starter. You can't renovate all of those rinks. The cost would be ridiculous, and you'd ruin the sightlines of just about every arena out there. All of that effort wouldn't make for much benefit, either. The WCHA shows that officiating and goaltending are far more important.
I'd support allowing new NHL arenas to have bigger ice, but requiring renovations isn't going to change anything.
Agree on the goalie pads.
Go back anbd look at the 1980 olympic video.
Pads were tiny and the 5-hole was big. However in 1980 - too many face-offs. Freezing the puck was called quickly.
Game is a lot different on the big ice. Better I say - more skating and passing - less pin ball action. Due to the NHL doubt we ever see any increase in Olympic size ice.
I firmly believe if the NHL decided to change the color of the netting from white to something a bit darker like black players would be able to see open space where the goalie isn't covering the net.
This is my first comment. This is a GREAT blog, and I check it daily. Thank you for your time and effort!
OK - I am a goaltender, and my son is a Midget AAA goalie, so this stuff always perplexes me.
The argument is always brought up about goalie equipment. It's really not the equipment folks - the goalies are way better, more athletic, and more refined than 25 years ago. How come nobody mentions other advances in the shooter's equipment? Are they still using big, heavy, woooden sticks? Uh, no. Let's see - those composite sticks are much lighter, flex more, and even little guys fire the puck way harder than ever. Shooters are also more accurate than ever before. The game is faster, puck movement is more crisp, etc. What's next - putting a goalie in net with just shin guards and no leg pads? Will that make the game more exciting? No.
Scoring is down because of the style of defensive, conservative play that coaches run (1-2-2, 1-4) - not the goalie gear. You can make the nets bigger and goalies smaller, the coaches will adapt and become even more defensive. Just thank the NJ Devils.
You want more scoring? Force teams to forecheck, and do not allow 5 guys to stand in the neutral zone. You will see more flow and scoring increase.
Personally, I love a 3-2 game - but hey, I am a goalie!
"I firmly believe if the NHL decided to change the color of the netting from white to something a bit darker like black players would be able to see open space where the goalie isn't covering the net."
Wow I never thought of this idea. Very simple and very unique. I think you would still have to make the top of the net still. Think how many problems they would have with instant replay!
Besides, if the goalies are so much better and athletic nowadays do they need the big equipment? You're just giving another reason why the size needs to be cut down. Bigger equipment doesn't even equate to advances in sticks. I play in the USHL and I still used the "woods" not until a year ago and their isn't a difference at all with your shot. It's just a lot lighter for easier stickhandling. Hell I would still use the "woods" but they stopped making my model four years ago. When I heard of this I bought 4 dozen and finally I ran out last year.
Olympic ice doesn't increase scoring. In fact, I would argue that it DECREASES it.
Why? Because of the extra width, cross-ice passes become more diffcult to complete, with a pass that overshoots its target becoming icing or recovered by the opposition's defense.
Then once control is gained in the offensive zone, the extra space simply means that passes take longer to get to their targets and the defenders have more time to react to where the puck moves to. Watch Olympic games closely and you'll see what I mean.
And Olympic games and Euro leagues aren't scorefests either. 3-2 is a high scoring game overseas.
Take away offsides and wouldn't cherry picking become almost common place? I could imagine a guy who's not very good defensively sitting in the offensive zone waiting for the cross rink pass.
No, eliminating offsides is a disasterous idea. Olympic Sized rinks aren't that much better for reasons Brad stated.
What would make the game more offensive is something that will more than likely NEVER happen in the U.S. That is to take away the physical aspect of the game. In other words, make it what people call "European style hockey."
OR, we could make the NHL like the Major juniors where everyone and their mom can score 1+ PPG. I can't wait for hockey games that have scores like 14-11, 9-6, or the OT Thriller: 20-19. Please!
The challenge is to get more offense without compromising the defense or goaltending. It's a tricky proposition indeed.
All I'm asking for is to make things proportional to the way things used to be. It's just math. Given 30 goalies all of whom on average cover X portion of the goal, we can probably guess about how many goals are going to be scored once we fill in goalie ability and the players' ability to shoot. My guess is that that's more or less the same, with bigger and faster players canceling out bigger and faster goalies. The only non-constants have been goalie pad size and the relative size of the goal and ice, which decrease as players get bigger and faster.
Defensive systems do play a big role. Still, look at goalie save percentage. It has really become inflated.
If they could tweak the pads/nets so that 90% became a good save percentage again, instead of 94-95% like it is now, scoring would go up marginally enough to make games more interesting again.
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