How would you fix the game?

Question

With all the talk of banning fighting (bad idea, to me), all the cheap shots, and increase in stick fouls, and talk of enlarging the goals (another bad idea); the league obviously knows it has problems. Plus, take into account that, if you don't have the center ice package you can hardly ever find a game.
My thoughts:
-cut back the goalie equipment again, instead of bigger nets
-you can't ban fighting, however, they have to come down harder on bad penalties. Chris Simon's suspension was a good one, but what about McLennan only getting 5 games. If they think that's all they are gonna get, & won't get their but kicked for it, it's not gonna stop. If it doesn't stop, we could forget finding games on regular t.v., even the bike race channell.

Answer 1

they need a gentlemens agreement on the cheap shots, or the NHL needs to step up and protect them. A lot of the stars in Hockey are not all that big or they don't want to fight because they will get hurt or hurt their careers by getting injured. Fighting should be allowed if both parties consent to it, and not sucker punched. It's been happening more and more and nothing is being done. Again the NHL should step up and give them a 3 strikes you're out rule. Just like drugs, 1,2,3, you're out. It should start with 20 games then 50 then you're just plain done. I think the nets should stay the same hight and the goaltenders equiptment should stay the same. It has helped teams score more goals. If goals are up that's good for entertainment, that's what people want is to see is people score. So don't change any of that. I think players need to stay out of the crease period especially on goals. That will cut back with goaltender interference. They need to also call penalties on those who knock them in the net or on the goaltender.

Answer 2

enough with new ways to change the game, seriously stop it already keep fixing it till its broke and thats what you'll have, revert the rules back to the 93 - 96 era, when hockey was the fast growing sport in america, now its nascar,

i moved from L.A. to louisiana and i made at least 10 hockey fans here where football is life and the rest is trash, and guess what. curved blue lines had nothing to do with it nor did the size of the goal or the size of the goalie pads,

you wanna know what i used to make hockey fans? goons
thats right goons, watching Gretzky stand behind a net and bank a shot off the back of the goalies leg takes skill but its not exciting, i would have to explain why that was impressive

but watching a rob blake open ice hip check didn't ever need an explanation, nor did domi or mcsorley duking it out at the blue line. you dont need to crack down on stick swinging, instead you let the goon crack skulls,

the "star" players come off as great but they forget the first rule of hockey - keep your chin up - and so we change the game, now the goon is gone and so is the excitement and the crowds and the tv ratings and the money,

you want a rule change i have one, put the whistle away and lets play some f***in hockey

Answer 3

Sadly, the game really can't go through too many more changes to make it better. I agree fighting is part of the game, as are hard hits. The game suspensions will have to get tougher. The thing that has changed hockey the most over the last ten years, is the way most offenses set up, or don't set up plays. The "puck dump" was never a big part of the game...guys carried in the puck, passed the puck, even shot it on net. Now, most teams dump it in along the boards and try to make something happen. This leads to more penalities, and agression. Now hockey has adopted the term "scrum" to describe part of the game. BS!!! I'd rather see turn overs and action at both ends of the ice instead of boring non-plays where guys just aimlessly slap the puck along the boards.

Answer 4

I agree that the NBA and David Stern can't "throw" games. But I do think that he can make it a lot harder for a certain team to win. This NBA Finals was a complete joke in terms of fair officiating. Dwayne Wade doesn't even get touched on several of his fouls. But Dirk Nowitzki basically gets body slammed to the floor and play continues. How is that fair officiating? I know that I may sound like a conspiricy nut by implying that David Stern and his cronies would give special treatment to a team. But let me ask you this and tell me if I'm crazy. Does David Stern want another Michael Jordan? You would be a fool to believe he wouldn't. Another Jordan would make the NBA billions and billions of dollars. So how do you go about getting another Jordan? First of all you need him to be a champion. Secondly, you need the next "Jordan" to score as many 40+ point games as possible. And how do you go about doing that? You get the refs to call as many fouls as possible to artificially inflate his scoring numbers. And you would hope that with some padding of a players numbers it would also help out that team. I would also like to point out an interesting tidbit. Has anyone ever seen such a dramatic turnaround in sports? I'm not talking about a game because anything can happen in a single game (ex. Buffalo Bills coming from 30+ points back to beat the Houston Oilers). But I'm talking about one team going from absolute domination to being dominated. The Dallas Mavericks beat the Miami Heat in the first 4 games of the year by probably 70ish points (30 point win, 18 point win, and a couple double digit wins in the finals). But then they couldn't beat Miami to save their lives. And it was nothing new. Before the Finals the Heat with Shaq never beat the Mavericks. It had been 3 years or more since Miami won a game in Dallas. So they obviously had been dominating Miami for a while now. Also, think about this. I was watching ESPN Classic and they were showing the Chicago Bulls and Cleveland Caviliers series from 1990. It was the game where Jordan scored 69 points. He went to the free throw line 23 times in that game. Dwayne Wade was averaging 23 attempts in the final 2 games of the Finals. I know the rule changes favor players that can penetrate to the basket. But you also have to realize that the 3 point line was a lot further back in 1990. While that may not be good evidence to show the NBA favoring a certain team or player it does show that Dwayne Wade is no Jordan. As for that person who said the Mavs used the "Hack-A-Shaq" strategy. Your wrong. They didn't. Shaq's free throw attempts throughout the Finals. Game 1 he had 9. Game 2 he had 7. Game 3 he had 6. Game 4 Shaq had 10 attempts. Game 5 he had 12. In Game 6 he had 4. I hardly would call that using the "Hack-A-Shaq". That's an average of 8 attempts a game which is nothing.

Answer 5

Much of the problem is that for the most part the league needs to STOP doing things and do a better job of marketing the game. Some random thoughts:

* Decide on whether a TOTAL of 3 points or 2 are going to be awarded and stick with it. Either have a won-loss record or make a regulation win worth 3 points.

* Get Hockey on a Major Network (I mean CBS, NBC, or ABC) YEAR ROUND no matter what it takes. The league may need to lose money short term to survive long term. Deal with it.

* Curve the blue lines so that each part has an equal distance to the net. This will cut down on offside calls and open up the game without having to do anything too drastic.

* As you said, get serious about cracking down on stick-swinging and sucker punching. These "slaps on the wrist" are basically announcing to players it is OK to do. If the next McSorley, Bertuzzi, or Simon were banned for LIFE, it would hurt them, hurt their team, and help hockey. Think about it.

Answer 6

I thought the League has made some positive strides by cracking down on interference and obstruction and the efforts to eliminate the "Neutral Zone Trap" style of play that was too prevalent. It is great to see the end to end skating and quick shots that have been lacking from the game.

I think the problem with the NHL over the last ten years has been Bettman's quixotic quest to capture general sports fans. I think the NHL has lost a lot of core fans. If I was on the NHL Board of Governors I would seriously consider contracting several teams and dispersing the best players. One of my main problems has been that the NHL has expanded to a lot of non-hockey markets in the Sun Belt and below the Mason-Dixon Line, where hockey will always be a distant favorite to NASCAR and college football. Unfortunately a lot of good teams like Carolina and Tampa Bay are in that region while traditional hockey markets like Chicago and Boston are suffering. Disburse some talented players and make your traditional teams powerful again.

Answer 7

Funny, the league never felt it had an image/fan interest issue until a midget NBA reject took over and screwed the whole thing up. There is no way any sport should have as its leader some lawyer who has never played the game even casually.
As far as the equipmet goes, don't the goalies back in Drydens day look like stick men compared to todays goalies? No wonder Gretzky and Howe scored so many goals (LOL)

Answer 8

1. Get rid of shootouts.
2. Leave goals and goalie pads where they are, there is enough scoring.
3. Stop calling penalties that dont affect the game. (minor infractions that are away from the play.)
4. Ban hits to the head. 1 game suspension for 1st offence, 3 games for the second offense, 10 games for 3rd offense, 20 games for 4th, full season for the rest.
5. Get back with ESPN. People shouldnt have to pay extra to watch hockey.
6. Move the Thrashers and Panthers to the West, put one in Canada and one in the states. Put Detroit and Columbus in the Eastern Conference.
7. Keep the salary cap, but make it a higher percentage of total revenues.
8.. Develope some type of system to regulate how much is awarded in arbitration hearings.
9. Move one team from both California and New York, there is no reason to have 3 teams in one state.
10. Go back to the old scheduling format.

Answer 9

I do like the rule changes they've made, about removing the two line pass, and the crack down on hooking, and holding. It has made the game a faster game. It was very apparent to me that the new rules were having an impact after the lockout when Brett Hull played for about two weeks and then said "I'm Retiring". It is definitely a faster and (in my opinion) a much improved game.

I don't think they should try to fix it much more until the current rules have played out for another year or two.

Answer 10

Don't fix something that ain't broke. I think the game is fine the way it is. I've been a hockey fan all my life, and although the rule changes took some getting used to, I think overall they improved the game.

Leave it be...no more changing!