I wonder if the NHL execs and Bettman will ever listen. Last night there were a fair amount of goals, but honestly if I didn't bet hockey (and from my record maybe I shouldn't 
) I don't know if I'd follow hockey as much as I did years ago.
CI
Where have all the goals gone?
By Larry Wigge - The Sporting News
The calendar has changed to 2002, but Blue Jackets GM Doug MacLean still is confident his second-year team is headed in the right direction, even if he's a little frustrated it hasn't made the same strides it did last season.
"We (scored) 190 goals last season and had a terrific season," MacLean says. "I thought we'd get over 200 this season. That doesn't look possible now, but I still think we're on the right track."
MacLean can point to missing Geoff Sanderson for most of this season with injuries and an unexplained falloff by David Vyborny and Espen Knutsen for the Blue Jackets' lack of scoring.
However, MacLean isn't alone -- a lot of teams are fretting over a lack of offense.
MacLean cites better goaltending -- "When I see (Tampa Bay's) Nikolai Khabibulin covering so much of the net by himself and with all of that equipment he wears, I wonder how you can get anything by him" -- and coaching that stresses defense first as the reasons for the goal drought.
Goals are down from 5.6 per game in 2000-01 to 5.2 through nearly half of this year's schedule. Those 2-1 games I used to love because of their up-and-down action have been replaced by too many 2-1 games with only spurts of skill and a little less energy.
That has translated into yawns in the stands and more empty seats in every building I've been in this season. Hockey needs red lights flashing, boards rattling and the crowd thumping.
Unfortunately, coaches don't play to win; they play to save their jobs.
Fans talk about removing the red line, and owner/superstar Mario Lemieux has talked about wanting to play four-on-four all the time, not just in overtime, to add spice on offense. Both ideas represent dramatic changes that neither the GMs nor the players' union is likely to agree to, however.
Regardless, the play-not-to-lose mentality is a result of too much expansion.
Clearly, the NHL wanted to take advantage of the 1990s' grassroots surge that led to increased minor league interest. Commissioner Gary Bettman was counting on that interest to translate to greater TV revenue. Trouble is, hockey still is a better game in person because TV can't capture the swashbuckling speed and the mind-boggling intensity and follow the puck at the same time.
Every year, I write there are more skilled new players in the NHL than in days gone by -- and I still believe that. But today, nearly every team rotates four lines, and the results are beginning to seem similar to those 5.00 earned-run averages in baseball, in which we see a lot of pitchers every night and all anyone can talk about is how bad the pitching is.
When the Devils and Red Wings played in the Stanley Cup final in 1995, they made an art form of rotating four lines. But those teams were the exception because they provided skill and energy and an attractive physical aspect to each game. Plus, they could score a lot.
"I'd like to see the game open up more, see the skill players dangle more," says Blues coach Joel Quenneville. "Too often, we see guys using their sticks to hold up players when they don't have the puck. That's a penalty. As a result, we're seeing less penetration through the neutral zone and hardly any odd-man breaks.
"Maybe we should have our referees call the game like they do in football, where receivers can be hit once within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage but then can't be touched until they get the ball."
"I was convinced the two-referee system would open up the game," MacLean says. "But I'm not convinced anymore."
When he coached the Panthers, MacLean says he thought it was great when his players aggressively checked the opponents and created turnovers. But today's defensive schemes are designed purely to sit back and neutralize the opponent.
"Now, as a GM, I'll go to a junior game to scout a player, and I'm looking to see his skill, and I get frustrated when I see all of this hooking and holding," he says. "Coaches have copied the NHL.
"Recently I heard one coach say that he doesn't teach his kids how to play offense, that his job is to neutralize the other team. That's scary to hear."
Depth and speed and determination in numbers can be better in this day and age than relying on stars, as the dynasties of the past two decades did.
"Four lines like the Devils and Red Wings had don't have to produce like Mario Lemieux did for the Penguins," says Predators GM David Poile. "With those teams, the players were so together they played as one superstar. If the No. 1 line didn't get you, then maybe the fourth line would."
But that was then and this is now.
Hockey is not like a broken car that you can repair with parts from an auto salvage yard. It's a long building process, and it starts with skill and energy, not a neutralizing mentality.
"The skilled players should be out there more," MacLean says. "(Toronto center) Mats Sundin recently complained that he was only playing 17 or 18 minutes a game. I don't understand that.
"Look at Calgary at the start of the season. When (defenseman) Derek Morris played 28 minutes a night, the Flames were a different team. Then he got hurt. I think we'll be a different team, too, when Rostislav Klesla (the team's first pick in 2000) is ready to give us 28 minutes a night playing defense like a young Chris Pronger did."
If MacLean and Quenneville have a say, big changes aren't needed to open up the game a little, just a few officiating tweaks.
I hope NHL executives are listening.
) I don't know if I'd follow hockey as much as I did years ago.CI
Where have all the goals gone?
By Larry Wigge - The Sporting News
The calendar has changed to 2002, but Blue Jackets GM Doug MacLean still is confident his second-year team is headed in the right direction, even if he's a little frustrated it hasn't made the same strides it did last season.
"We (scored) 190 goals last season and had a terrific season," MacLean says. "I thought we'd get over 200 this season. That doesn't look possible now, but I still think we're on the right track."
MacLean can point to missing Geoff Sanderson for most of this season with injuries and an unexplained falloff by David Vyborny and Espen Knutsen for the Blue Jackets' lack of scoring.
However, MacLean isn't alone -- a lot of teams are fretting over a lack of offense.
MacLean cites better goaltending -- "When I see (Tampa Bay's) Nikolai Khabibulin covering so much of the net by himself and with all of that equipment he wears, I wonder how you can get anything by him" -- and coaching that stresses defense first as the reasons for the goal drought.
Goals are down from 5.6 per game in 2000-01 to 5.2 through nearly half of this year's schedule. Those 2-1 games I used to love because of their up-and-down action have been replaced by too many 2-1 games with only spurts of skill and a little less energy.
That has translated into yawns in the stands and more empty seats in every building I've been in this season. Hockey needs red lights flashing, boards rattling and the crowd thumping.
Unfortunately, coaches don't play to win; they play to save their jobs.
Fans talk about removing the red line, and owner/superstar Mario Lemieux has talked about wanting to play four-on-four all the time, not just in overtime, to add spice on offense. Both ideas represent dramatic changes that neither the GMs nor the players' union is likely to agree to, however.
Regardless, the play-not-to-lose mentality is a result of too much expansion.
Clearly, the NHL wanted to take advantage of the 1990s' grassroots surge that led to increased minor league interest. Commissioner Gary Bettman was counting on that interest to translate to greater TV revenue. Trouble is, hockey still is a better game in person because TV can't capture the swashbuckling speed and the mind-boggling intensity and follow the puck at the same time.
Every year, I write there are more skilled new players in the NHL than in days gone by -- and I still believe that. But today, nearly every team rotates four lines, and the results are beginning to seem similar to those 5.00 earned-run averages in baseball, in which we see a lot of pitchers every night and all anyone can talk about is how bad the pitching is.
When the Devils and Red Wings played in the Stanley Cup final in 1995, they made an art form of rotating four lines. But those teams were the exception because they provided skill and energy and an attractive physical aspect to each game. Plus, they could score a lot.
"I'd like to see the game open up more, see the skill players dangle more," says Blues coach Joel Quenneville. "Too often, we see guys using their sticks to hold up players when they don't have the puck. That's a penalty. As a result, we're seeing less penetration through the neutral zone and hardly any odd-man breaks.
"Maybe we should have our referees call the game like they do in football, where receivers can be hit once within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage but then can't be touched until they get the ball."
"I was convinced the two-referee system would open up the game," MacLean says. "But I'm not convinced anymore."
When he coached the Panthers, MacLean says he thought it was great when his players aggressively checked the opponents and created turnovers. But today's defensive schemes are designed purely to sit back and neutralize the opponent.
"Now, as a GM, I'll go to a junior game to scout a player, and I'm looking to see his skill, and I get frustrated when I see all of this hooking and holding," he says. "Coaches have copied the NHL.
"Recently I heard one coach say that he doesn't teach his kids how to play offense, that his job is to neutralize the other team. That's scary to hear."
Depth and speed and determination in numbers can be better in this day and age than relying on stars, as the dynasties of the past two decades did.
"Four lines like the Devils and Red Wings had don't have to produce like Mario Lemieux did for the Penguins," says Predators GM David Poile. "With those teams, the players were so together they played as one superstar. If the No. 1 line didn't get you, then maybe the fourth line would."
But that was then and this is now.
Hockey is not like a broken car that you can repair with parts from an auto salvage yard. It's a long building process, and it starts with skill and energy, not a neutralizing mentality.
"The skilled players should be out there more," MacLean says. "(Toronto center) Mats Sundin recently complained that he was only playing 17 or 18 minutes a game. I don't understand that.
"Look at Calgary at the start of the season. When (defenseman) Derek Morris played 28 minutes a night, the Flames were a different team. Then he got hurt. I think we'll be a different team, too, when Rostislav Klesla (the team's first pick in 2000) is ready to give us 28 minutes a night playing defense like a young Chris Pronger did."
If MacLean and Quenneville have a say, big changes aren't needed to open up the game a little, just a few officiating tweaks.
I hope NHL executives are listening.
