What is the one thing you don't like about hockey?

Question

Yeah, another slow hockey day. We all know that nothing is perfect in anything we like. I'm pretty sure some basketball fans hate it when it gets slow in the final few seconds when all they do is foul and call time-outs. Also, yes, we all hate Gary Bettman and his cronies' business decisions, so let's keep this in the frame of the game of hockey.

Personally, I was never in favour of touch icing. No-touch icing makes the game go by faster as well as decrease the number of injuries on players when they race after the puck.

Ren, I'm glad you decided to become narrow-minded like your chihuahua counterpart on a cartoon over ten years ago.

LOL Took me a little while to get the reference, Bob.

I come from a security/law enforcement background so any time someone gets hurt, something has to be fixed so that it won't happen again. Same thing with the current icing rule. That's just my train of thought. Also, most of the players doesn't have anything to fall back on if they didn't have hockey. If one of them going after the puck breaks his ankle or gets a concussion after getting tripped or blowing a tire on the ice, then what? They do have a nice financial package under the CBA for these sort of things, but what'll happen once the money runs out?
The touch icing is like waiting for a pitcher to throw the ball to me. Like you said, it's 1 out of a 100 that there is a hustle play. But in the rest of the 99 times, you know that there's an icing. It may not slow down the game if you're counting seconds, but it sure feels longer. Running out of space here...

Puck passes the red line, whistle goes, face-off at the other end of the ice. I don't have to wait the extra seconds, holding in my beer internally.

Answer 1

The biggest thing I do not like about the NHL? Try the instigator rule. Back in the day, there was less violence (granted, the Ted Green/Wayne Maki assault comes to mind, as does Turgeon/Hunter) due to the fact that for every Wayne Gretzky, there was a Dave Semenko or a Marty McSorley. Almost every team that possessed a superstar had a goon or two that kept intepid muckers in line. With the instigator rule in play, we have Steve Moore getting pummelled by Todd Bertuzzi, Ryan Hollweg's near beheading, the constant long-term injuries, etc. Let the "cops" handle the on-ice business. People always complained about the NHL being too violent in the 1970s and 1980s...yet I believe that the instigator rule has made the game more violent today.

Answer 2

First: Ties and Shootouts. If I were the king of hockey, I would cut the ice, put 20 on the clock and decide the game the right way. I think it is a disgrace that an NHL game was decided like this. I agree with Bob, it's great fun that should be reserved for the all-star game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ret3og6gwnA

Second: Instigator Rule. If I were the king of hockey, I would stop punishing the guys who provide what most people consider an entertaining part of the game.

Third: The New Standard of Penalty Enforcement: If I were the king of hockey, I would allow the officials to return to using their judgment regarding when to call or not call a penalty. I would institute a policy of fines, suspensions and eventually dismissal of officials who ignore scoring, injury potential and obstruction calls however the current policy of a penalty being called almost every time a player makes stick contact is a bit too much.

Fourth: Gary Buttman. If I were the king of hockey, I would replace the commissioner with someone who has the vision to move the game in the right direction while honoring and respecting the history and traditions that make the game great. This is a pretty broad statement, but it would include more Canadian teams as well as the things I have stated previously.

Answer 3

Puck over the glass penalty. It should be the same thing as icing--faceoff in your own end, keep the same line on the ice.

Getting a point for an overtime "loss."

Jim Hughson should be the top commentator for Hockey Night in Canada, not Bob Cole.

Parity. I don't mid a competitive season, but what really bothers me is that you can't keep a good team together for more than 3 years anymore.

The fact that the NHL is no longer on ESPN. I blame Bettman for that, and I actually don't blame ESPN for dissing hockey now that they don't air it anymore. But what I miss the most is Gary Thorne's calls.

Road team wearing white. Not that it really matters, but I miss seeing the home team wear white. That's what I am used to.

Those are a few, but the thing I dislike the most is probably the fact that we aren't on ESPN anymore.

Answer 4

Though it may be a 1 in 100, I love the hustle play where a player beats out the icing. Also, the whole injury thing has been exaggerated, mostly by Don Cherry. Guys get injured during lots of plays and sometimes yes, it happens during the race to beat out an icing. No different then racing for a puck when it isn't for icing, you can still catch a rut or get tripped up. The only significant one that I can think of in the NHL (the same one Cherry likes to ramble about) is when the Caps Pat Peake shattered his ankle when he caught a rut but let's face it, it could have been any play.
As for the speeding the game up, I don't find it too slow, plus they need their TV time-outs to make money off of those commercials anyway and it gives me a chance to grab a beer.
With that answer or lack thereof, can I still say Bettman?

I guess I will say off of the top of my head, I think the goalie's area to play the puck is stupid, I would however like to see them be fair game if they wander to the corners. Unintentional shooting of the puck over the boards in your own end for a penalty is stupid. Instigator rule is REALLY stupid.

Answer 5

I do not like the point system. Play for overtime and you are assured a point no matter what. If you lose in overtime you should recieve 0 points. Shootout losses could count as a 1/2 point. All wins remain at 2. Whoever wrote that the losing the two line pass was a bad thing is a douche bag and must be a Flyer or Devils fan. That was one of the best things to happpen to the NHL in the past few years.

Answer 6

I don't like the one minute commercial breaks. Before the four, one minute breaks per period, there used to be eight 30 second stoppages. The nhl went to the 1 minute format in the 90's in an attempt to appease networks, but the longer break.

The by-product of the change was that teams could double shift star players easier. That was the argument used in favor of the change. However, the additional rest also enabled more defensive squads to match lines and role their shadows more often.

Was a coincident that trap hockey evolved shortly after this rule change? Perhaps, but I still don't like it. It breaks up the flow and momentum of a game for too long a period and penalizes the better, more dominant squad at any given point of play stoppage.

EDIT: Mike B, the reason visors are becoming more prevalent is because we've lived through a generation of mandatory facial protection at youth, collegiate and junior levels. The day will come where visors will either be granfathered in as the helmet was or where more than 90% of nhl players will voluntarily wear them because they're used to them and would like to keep their eyes. By the way, Heatley wears the oversize shield because of a shattered orbital bone he suffered when playing in Europe in the lockout year.

As for the days of the CCM helmet, do you remember the 'tron' Cooper alternative? It was heavy, ugly and uncomfortable, which led to it's demise. Once Cooper and other competitors came out with a decent looking lids, the percentages flattened out. Today, CCM/RBK, Nike Bauer and Mission each have roughly a third of nhl players using their respective brands.

It's 'progress', I guess, and the better ideas usually stick around. The challenge for the league is to find innovative ways of marketing their assets inspite of the challenges like player visibilty/recognition. Football has the same issues, but tries to market around it with 'under the helmet' style campaigns.

Speaking of football, you're probably going to have a coronary when you see all the new formfitting uni's in the nhl this year. I might be with you on that one, however.

Answer 7

Actually I end up liking the touch-icing after seeing it in WJC and other junior games. At least it gives the other team a chance to chase down the puck instead of having the whistle blow again and again if a team keeps on icing the puck.

Answer 8

ok this is a hard question because Hockey is my favorite sport and i love everything about it but i guess after read other peoples answers i would have to agree with Bob about how the goalies are restricted as to where they can play the puck and the refs some are really dumb sometimes they favor a team when they call penaltys or at least it seems like they do lets hope they dont though

another one its not really about the game its about the tickets they are sooooooo hard to get here in Buffalo i hate that

Answer 9

Visors and the possibility they might become mandatory. I don't think it's stupid to wear a visor--in fact it's quite smart. I just don't like them, they are ugly. I know Dany Heatley wears a visor that practically covers the bottom of his nose. Ever seen that? Pure crap. When I watched hockey in the 90's, only a few wore the visor--Bourque, Propp, Gartner and a few others--it didn't look suspect, just out of the ordinary. Now most players (maybe 50%) wear it. I just think back to the days when players didn't wear helmets. All that fancy hair, with Beatles sideburns and Elvis Presley combed hair. Very fancy, especially for the ladies. What ever happened to that? Well the helmet came along, which was a BIG deal with the fans. The ladies couldn't see the stars' hair that much so it was a full evening. Helmet was a dirty word right until the early to mid-1980's when practically all players wore the same helmet--CCM. Okay so Gretzky and Kurri wore JOFA, big deal and Messier wore WinnWel, another big deal. But basically everybody got used to it. But with this visor thing, I still can't get used to it. When I saw Kyle McLaren's blue visor and Ovechkin's yellow visor, I turned the TV off. I don't want to watch Star Wars on ice LOL.

Answer 10

I like touch icing because it gives a chance to get the puck back and makes the game more competitive. What I don't like in the NHL is Bettman and the NHL schedule. For example the western Canadian teams aren't playing the Eastern Canadian teams this year. The NBA is way better schedule-wise. Every team plays every team home and home.