NHL/Tour de France

[DarkStar50 679]

The NHL has now turned into the Tour de France in the offensive zone. Nothing but cycle after cycle of the puck along the wall until, oops, the defensive guys just poke checked it away and cleared the zone. Number of shots on goal: zero. The first guy to ever spend 90% of his shift facing the wall was Don Maloney, #12 on the Rangers back in the 70s. It was something to see as he worked the boards with the puck. Now, its all the guys do in the offensive zone and its boring!!! Will we ever see any creativity with cross ice tic-tac-toe passing again? Please !!

[Penguinsfanatic 0]

I wasn't around in the early 80's and can't even remember the early 90's when the puck handler would skate it straight up and take it to the net....all we see now is what you are talking about and this dump and chase shit

[-brady2 0]

you want that to happen why not let some of hte old guys around here play defense and give ovechkin and backstrom the puck behind the net

[Chadd 916]

The only way to open up the game is to get rid of the offside rule and get rid of the blue lines as well - think of roller hockey, I think they only use the red line.

Most of the fast break outs are developed between the blue lines, so we must get rid of them, this way the D can't line up anymore, plus even if they do force you to dump it in, this is where the no offside rule comes in so you can send a guy ahead of the puck.

No offense but that's one of the dumbest ideas I've heard. Inline hockey games are often painfully slow to watch, even at the elite levels. Not to mention the red and blue lines create areas of interest. You lose all of the times when players battle to keep a puck in at the blue line or get to the red line so a dump in is legal and replace it with more passive play. Getting rid of the blue lines is just going to result in defensemen backing off even more and rarely giving up breakaways. As for the benefit of having a guy cherry pick to get what would have been an icing, that isn't going to improve the game in any way shape or form.

As to the original post:

I actually think it was worse before the lockout, than it is now. I see more guys slashing to the net and give and go type plays than in the late 90s, early 00s. The Flyers used to excel in the cycle for 30 seconds and then get one shot or turn it over.

You do see some players now "posting up" to use a basketball term. Just throwing their ass out and holding the puck away from the defender. I have no problem when I see some creative guys doing it because you can often see them trying to set up a play. When you have fourth liners and goons doing it, it just sucks the life out of a shift.

[chippa13 1844]

You're better off cycling the puck and wearing down the opposition than forcing a bad pass and giving up possession right away. The cycle was much more prevelent in Euro hockey where a premium is placed on puck possession.

[cxo 0]

I don't even know if I have a problem with teams cycling and wearing down the D in even strength play, but when I see teams waste 1:45 on cycling during a power play to get off a single shot that typically goes wide (Detroit), then cleared 200 feet and back to the goalie to waste the other 15 seconds, that's when I start to think it's a poor strategy. You should be able to get plenty more shots off in a man-advantage situation.

[TBLfan 25]

The NHL has now turned into the Tour de France in the offensive zone. Nothing but cycle after cycle of the puck along the wall until, oops, the defensive guys just poke checked it away and cleared the zone. Number of shots on goal: zero. The first guy to ever spend 90% of his shift facing the wall was Don Maloney, #12 on the Rangers back in the 70s. It was something to see as he worked the boards with the puck. Now, its all the guys do in the offensive zone and its boring!!! Will we ever see any creativity with cross ice tic-tac-toe passing again? Please !!

What the Lightning PP. It's cycle, cycle, cycle, cycle after about a min of that, if the puck isn't lost, they start tic-tac-toe-ing the puck. But they'll only do that if they hit that streak of 17 consecutive passes.

Seriously, a buddy and I started playing over/under on how many passes before a shot. The numbers range from 7-10. Average passes before a shot... Somewhere between 8-14 last time we played.

[Chadd 916]

Your solutions wouldn't improve any aspect of the NHL and would actually serve to slow the game down even more. Enforcement of existing rules did and would again work wonders in keeping skating lanes open. Not allowing fourth liners and journeymen to intentionally injure guys with actual talent would be a massive upgrade as well.

[Chadd 916]

If you can't see a difference between pre-lockout hockey and post lockout hockey, you really shouldn't make comments like this:

most of whom have no idea what they’re talking about or can spot a talent.

Most coaches in the NHL are more afraid of losing than they are interested in winning. That's why you see such cautious play from teams most of the time. No matter what rule changes you want to make, you aren't going to change that mentality. The only thing that is going to change that way of thinking is another team like the 80s Oilers or early 90s Penguins who don't care how much you score as long as they get one more goal.

[epstud74 24]

It goes in cycles. The current offensive philosophies are in response to the tighter defensive systems in place today. A premium is placed on quality shots on goal as opposed to quantity I guess. You hae to be patient and pick your spots cuz you wont be getting a lot of oppotunities at the net today. I feel todays defensive systems are in response to the 80s era Oilers teams plus I think there are more mobile defensemen today than in the past.

[JJ Thompson94 0]

I don't think the NHL needs to go balls out crazy with the rules. Personally i'd like to see bigger nets and smaller pads, but that a bit extreme and i'm not expecting it anytime soon.

What the NHL NEEDS to do is shrink a bit. There are too many teams and too many players that are just not good enough playing in the NHL.

I love watching the olympics, cause every team is basicly an all-star team. No matter what they do they do it better, faster, nicer because they are the best the world has to offer. Canada is stacked, so is Russia and every team in the olympics for that matter.

Back to my point, point is if you took out the thrashers from the NHL (ATL fans, this is just an example don't get mad) and ALL the players became free agents, how many players are going to lose their job.

I'll tell you. 24 NHL players will lose their job. Of course teams will jump on Kovy and Enstrom, Maybe Holik and Recchi. But those players are taking other players jobs, not to mention all the players from ATL that won't really be wanted for full time NHL jobs by anyone else.

The NHL needs to shrink and stop diluting the talent in the NHL, point is there are just too many players that arn't good enough. I promise if you weed out more bad players from the NHL, the NHL will put out a better product every night. They won't have to cycle all night long and play like they are X's and O's all night. Because great and good players have creativity and know how to play hockey well.

The NHL should strive to put out a product like they do in the olympics. I'm not saying lets go to six teams (but if they did, hockey would be AWSOME)I'm saying lets take out 4 teams and go to 26. That would make a huge difference. First thing you will notice is alot of starting goalies will become backups.

In fact I know the 4 teams to take out.

Atlanta, One Florida team (they don't need two), Pheonix and Nashville. We hardly knew you! Only Voukun(if it's the panthers) will get picked up to be a starter, not one other goalie on these teams should be starting in the NHL.

[gxc999 7]

I have to agree that there's more slashing to the net post rather than pre-lockout. I know there are things the NHL can do to increase offense, but at what cost? I personally like the idea of an illegal defense penalty, after a couple warnings of course, but I'm not sure many would agree. I also support the shrinking of goalie pads and jerseys and even an increase in net size. With that said, cycling can result in a lot of goals if, and only if, the line has chemistry and the players are familiar with each others timing. You can't just throw random players together and say, "Keep passing the puck in the zone until you get tired." It also won't work well if you have 5 passers and no shooters...

[epstud74 24]

How do you all feel about a bigger ice sheet?

[chippa13 1844]

What lanes, when was the last time you saw a pass from your own blue line for a breakaway, the whole aspect or trapping is to leave no open lanes.

You're joking right. I see homerun passes all over the league. Heck, the Caps connected on two for goals against the B's about 2 weeks ago and missed at least two more glorious opportunities on stretch passes.

[Penguinsfanatic 0]

i'd like to see bigger nets

WHAT!!! Are you crazy...lol but the smaller gear i have to agree with you, but i would like to see the upper body decreased in size. You and I both know that they could have smaller gear with more protection so I don't see what the big deal is about just switching it?

[mrusse01 0]

If you can't see a difference between pre-lockout hockey and post lockout hockey, you really shouldn't make comments like this:

most of whom have no idea what they’re talking about or can spot a talent.

Most coaches in the NHL are more afraid of losing than they are interested in winning. That's why you see such cautious play from teams most of the time. No matter what rule changes you want to make, you aren't going to change that mentality. The only thing that is going to change that way of thinking is another team like the 80s Oilers or early 90s Penguins who don't care how much you score as long as they get one more goal.

In my opinion the biggest problem by far in the NHL is a completely inconsistent application of the rules by the referees. The smart thing to do in today's game is to play as safe as possible 5 on 5, try and draw a penalty, and win the game on the PP.

Why do you think teams dump/chase/cycle? It gives the refs a chance to call a completely random interference/holding/hooking call either on the dump and chase or on the cycle down low, and it is a safe play so even if you do get mugged and there's no call it's not going to kill you with an odd-man rush.

[Chadd 916]

What the NHL NEEDS to do is shrink a bit. There are too many teams and too many players that are just not good enough playing in the NHL.

Not even close to a good idea. Most scoring chances come from errors and mistakes. The more "bad" players you get, the more likely there is a chance of a breakdown that will lead to a scoring opportunity. Your best scoring opportunities come from mis-matches in talent, a higher overall talent level is going to result in fewer of those mis-matches.

You have fourth line guys in the NHL right now that could have been second liners 20 years ago. The talent level of individual players has risen significantly over the last 20-30 years, despite all of those who say that expansion is bad.

[chippa13 1844]

The flip side of that is, the more "bad" players you get, the less watchable to game becomes. I'd rather see a 2 on 1 develop from a couple of good passes than from a defenseman falling down.

[DarkStar50 679]

What the NHL NEEDS to do is shrink a bit. There are too many teams and too many players that are just not good enough playing in the NHL.

Not even close to a good idea. Most scoring chances come from errors and mistakes. The more "bad" players you get, the more likely there is a chance of a breakdown that will lead to a scoring opportunity. Your best scoring opportunities come from mis-matches in talent, a higher overall talent level is going to result in fewer of those mis-matches.

You have fourth line guys in the NHL right now that could have been second liners 20 years ago. The talent level of individual players has risen significantly over the last 20-30 years, despite all of those who say that expansion is bad.

While the talent level has risen, the talent pool has shrunk.

[chippa13 1844]

I'm not so sure that the talent pool has shrunk. I might even argue that it has gone the other way.

[DarkStar50 679]

Yes, what I mean is the talent pool among 30 teams has shrunk. Ryan Hollweg, Boogard, Parros, fill roles I know but in the old 21 team league where 16 teams made the playoffs(the good old pre Bettman days), there was a better pool of players based on numbers. The cycle wasn't as prevalent back then either. Players tried to set up a scoring opportunity based on passing not a mistake only.

[Chadd 916]

Yes, what I mean is the talent pool among 30 teams has shrunk. Ryan Hollweg, Boogard, Parros, fill roles I know but in the old 21 team league where 16 teams made the playoffs(the good old pre Bettman days), there was a better pool of players based on numbers. The cycle wasn't as prevalent back then either. Players tried to set up a scoring opportunity based on passing not a mistake only.

US and Canadian numbers are down but I haven't seen anything on european particiapation levels. Cycling is thanks to the current coaching philosophy of trying really hard not to lose. Find a team that has success attacking and you will see more teams mimic them.

[chippa13 1844]

The league has become more specialized, roles are more defined.

The "good old days" of the 16 of 21 teams making the playoffs made the regular season practically meaningless.

[Penguinsfanatic 0]

So why doesn't the NHL expand even more to non traditional cities so there could be more horrific talent and those teams could get scored on so much it would boost scoring numbers....that is a total joke just so you guys konw

One of the things that bothers me most about professional sports which goes along with what Chadd was saying is the firing of coaches just because a team does bad, sometimes its not your coach it could just very well be your players. I feel that with this looming threat of being fired it prevents them from trying something new to boost scoring, so instead of thinking about offense they start thinking about defense

[DarkStar50 679]

The league has become more specialized, roles are more defined.

The "good old days" of the 16 of 21 teams making the playoffs made the regular season practically meaningless.

Of course, I was kidding. But at least back then the playoffs were set up on your overall finish, I think. Can't remember exactly but........