June 04, 2003

Wayne Gretzky says he'll break his no-oldtimers-game rule for the planned outdoor Nov. 22 game in Edmonton. The Great One also has a remedy for the NHL's goal decline: "We've got to get the goaltending equipment back to the size it was in the '70s and '80s. When you have a picnic table guarding the net it's pretty hard to score."

posted by rcade to hockey at 04:02 PM - 15 comments

I always thought the biggest problem with NHL scoring, and the one that Gretzky and Mario used to bitch about was the constant holding and badgering perpetrated by less-skilled players. Has the NHL effectivley cleared up that problem?

posted by vito90 at 08:24 AM on June 05, 2003

The question I have is (given that this will be a Saturday event and the NHL game will be on Hockey Night in Canada) - will the old timer's game be on TV? Lotta good it'd do me being in the UK, but just wondering.

posted by gspm at 09:02 AM on June 05, 2003

I think CBC will air the game. They've dedicated 8 hour chunks of time to hockey before, and with the Great One stepping out, its a no-brainer. The clutching and grabbing are still a problem, and I personally think that anytime a player's hand closes on another player's stick, it should be an automatic minor. How can that not be a holding penalty? But, I think Gretzky is speaking out about goalie equipment size b/c Bettman in all his glorious wisdom wants to look at changing the size of the goal, which is blasphemous. Reducing the advantage the goalie enjoys by having little to no size restrictions on pads, makes for a better goalies and better games.

posted by garfield at 10:09 AM on June 05, 2003

The clutching/grabbing by players in the NHL has been going on for decades. It wasn't just a problem in the 80s/90s/00s. A recent Bobby Hull television biography had quotes from various other players about how Hull had to fight through "two or three players hanging off his back". What has changed in the time since the 80s score-fests and the 00s snore-fests is the following:

  • bigger skaters - less room to skate
  • bigger goalies - less room to shoot
  • better goalies - they aren't just the guys who couldn't skate/shoot, and they are all in fantastic shape
  • bigger equipment - players and (especially) goalies all look HUGE compared to the 80s and earlier
  • better defensive strategies - bad teams can win games by stopping the other team from scoring and getting a lucky break
You can't change the size of the players or the defensive strategies (how do you declare an "illegal defense" in a fast moving game like hockey?) but you can change the size of the equipment. Don't touch the size of the nets either. That's a fundamental change to the nature of the sport and would invalidate any/all records set after that point. I would instead do the following: 1) Allow two-line passes / remove the centre line : opens up the defenses (to guard the long pass) and makes for exciting plays for skilled passers/skaters like Mogilny, Bure, Jagr 2) Make all rinks Olympic size : hard to tell an arena owner to remove a row of his $500/rinkside tickets, but a bigger rink provide more room for the bigger players to play 3) Shrink the maximum pad/glove/sweater size for goalies. It doesn't have to go back to the skinny-size of the 80s, but something reasonable would be nice 4) Call the holding-the-stick and obstruction-hooking/holding calls every time. Pre-season, regular season, playoffs, overtime, game 7...all the time. It will be one season of extra powerplays, but they'll learn. And what exciting power plays they will be with no red line, bigger rinks and reasonably sized goalies! Oh, and I look forward to seeing Gretzky play again and to watching the outdoor game on TV. The Oilers old-timers starting lineup would probably be: LW - Semenko (or Messier if he retired (it's where he started)) C - Gretzky RW - Kurri LD - Lowe RD - Coffey G - Fuhr

posted by grum@work at 10:48 AM on June 05, 2003

I was watching an old Patrick Roy game from the 1985 Finals on ESPN Classic the other day and noticed that 1) He appeared to be about 200 lbs skinnier and 2) How freaking nice it was to not have ads all over the boards surrounding the ice.

posted by Ufez Jones at 11:13 AM on June 05, 2003

Not that I can link to it, but Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe, who's been beating the "Fix the game I love" drum for a couple of years is in complete agreement with Wayne. It does seem, compared to times as recent as the '80s, that goalies have the angles cut down before they even position themselves.

posted by yerfatma at 11:23 AM on June 05, 2003

Maybe this is a dumb question, but, um, what is bubble hockey?

posted by tieguy at 11:47 AM on June 05, 2003

Bubble Hockey: arcade style hockey, with plastic players that swivel 360 degrees and slide back and forth along pre-cut paths. The rink is contained within a large plastic bubble to prevent the puck from leaving the arena.

posted by garfield at 12:26 PM on June 05, 2003

grum, I agree, the red line must go! The rink size is a tougher sell to the league, though I like it.

posted by garfield at 12:29 PM on June 05, 2003

The clutching/grabbing by players in the NHL has been going on for decades. It wasn't just a problem in the 80s/90s/00s. A recent Bobby Hull television biography had quotes from various other players about how Hull had to fight through "two or three players hanging off his back". I don't know, grum. I was watching an Oilers/Bruins stanley cup final game from 1988 on ESPN classic the other weekend, and the game was very, very different. I saw hardly any of the interference and clutching and grabbing that's so commonplace today.

posted by Samsonov14 at 12:43 PM on June 05, 2003

bubble hockey would be the hockey equivalent of foosball should any additional description be needed to sort that out for the unfamiliar. the gretzky link to bubble hockey is related to thing is an american commerical tie in from one of the beer sponsors. i love bubble hockey.

posted by gspm at 01:03 PM on June 05, 2003

The problem now is that teams are coached so meticulously that it's impossible to beat a clockwork defensive system no matter how skilled your forwards are. Increasing the net size might lead to a few more goals, but the excitement and pacing of the game is still being asphyxiated. I think the only reasonable solution is to go 4-on-4. The owners will never agree to expand the rink size. Allowing two-line passing isn't the answer either. Instead of offsides we'll just get icings, and it's not a foolproof way to beat the trap. Instead of suffocating the puck carrier they'll just line up at the blue line like Minnesota currently does. 4-on-4 is the answer! And while I don't think it's the biggest problem faced by the league right now, the goalie equipment is getting ridiculous. Don Cherry said it best: "In my day, equipment was for protection, not stopping pucks." Or something like that.

posted by Succa at 03:35 PM on June 05, 2003

I agree with succa and Don Cherry, but I think owners might consider the Olympic-sized rinks. It would open up the game quite a bit, meaning more scoring and more attention on the stars. As for losing a row of seats, geez, the owners will just jack up the remaining seats a little bit! As for 4-on-4, I think we're forgetting the NHLPA. They aren't going to be down with trimming that many players, and it would lead to a reduction in rosters.

posted by wfrazerjr at 04:13 PM on June 05, 2003

going 4-on-4 (for 60 min) is in the same territory as expanding the nets. expand the rink. bigger players need a bigger rink. i don't mind the goalies making great saves with their inflated equipment provided the chances are good. 16 shots on goal (anaheim, gm 1) just isn't good enough. a bigger ice would solve several problems (and create more).

posted by gspm at 06:40 PM on June 05, 2003

Of course, what happens the day after we start talking about "low scoring games"? NJ 6 - Ana 3

posted by grum@work at 10:35 PM on June 05, 2003

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