Smoke & Mirrors: NHL Spin-o-rama
This is a fucking joke. Show me a fan poll about how “great” the new league is. Stats, smoke and more mirrors. After the NHL tanks on OLN and NBC, maybe Bettman can strike a deal with Boomerang or the Cartoon Network. You’re courting casual fans again, Gary. I like how Cox calls it “wildest” hockey. What league is he watching? Well, you can’t trust a guy with a last name like that anyway. Having your paid mouthpieces like Bill Clement or Brendan Shanahan tell everyone how great the league is doesn’t make it so. True fans smell this bullshit a mile away. Like Shanahan and his buddies have any cred after tanking a season … Go back on your barn-storming lockout tour of Europe with your cry-baby colleagues because there’s little difference between that brand of hockey and this brand: both are weak. ~Bully
NHL sticks to its guns
DAMIEN COX
HOCKEY COLUMNIST
OTTAWA—The most significant indication yet that the NHL has absolutely no intention of reversing any elements of the new rule enforcement system it has imposed on its participants this fall came through an official press release.
Released yesterday, the giddy glee of the league came through loud and clear as it reported through the first 40 games of the season an enormous increase in goals (41 per cent!), shots and comebacks, a decrease in shutouts and fighting and the high drama created via four shootout games that would have otherwise been ties.
It was a release that all but screamed, “Look at us! Look at us! Look Ma, no hands!”
It’s almost as if Gary Bettman’s administration, having brought the players’ union to heel, is riding a wave of confidence that has carried over to its plan to deliver a new style of hockey this season.
For now, there’s seems little chance the league will back off, and that is creating some of the wildest hockey seen in this league in a very long time.
October 11th, 2005 at 2:36 pm
The NHL’s game is no longer a game of contact. It is, as someone said, a game of collisions. It is a game that will drive the tough guys out. I dont mean goons…I mean tough guys. There is no drama….it’s indoor soccer on ice. I am a long time fan of all levels of hockey and what the NHL has created is not the game I love. I’m all for taking out the clutching and grabbing and the complete neutralization of speed. By enforcing the rules the NHL said they were going to enforce two years ago (and didnt) along with the elimination of the red line…the game would be the one we’d all like to see. Speed is rewarded, but tough play is not penalized.
October 11th, 2005 at 4:31 pm
That call against Charra for “holding” Lindros (clip on this site - “No Touching”) would have been a joke in the past … and apparently it is a joke to The Bully. But I like them calling that a penalty. I have no problem with them cracking down STRINGENTLY on obstruction, holding, hooking and especially high sticking.
20 powerplays a night is what it might take to teach the players and coaches to play a more explosive style of hockey.
If Charra doesn’t have the option to grab at Lindros as he crosses the line (with or without the puck) there is a better chance he will go for a knockout open ice hit. OR, in the case of that particular play he would have to wheel around and chase Lindros into the corner and rub him out on the glass. I don’t know about you but I would rather see that happen than trying to hold him. I believe calling those particular obstruction-type infractions will make the game faster tougher and more explosive. The NHL has got to stick with there plan this time.
But with that said there is one rule I don’t want them to call closely. For the love of Clean Hard-Nosed Hockey … the Instigator Rule should be called very rarely (or removed entirely). If you high stick someone on purpose or carelessly you will get a rest in the penalty box or maybe a suspension or small fine. In the old days if you did that, you got to live with the constant fear of getting your eye blackened or some teeth knocked out. If you ask me, that’s more of a deterrant.
October 12th, 2005 at 12:51 pm
I agree that the blatant obstruction, holding, hooking, high sticking etc should be called….and I hope that the theory is something like “we have to re-train these players and we can do that by calling EVERYTHING…then we’ll back off a bit.”
What a lot of NHL/AHL players are worried about is letting players with no balls become a dominant factor.