[Itse]

If you want to start talking about things that are seriously broken, how about the interference rule. As it is written it's extremely arbitrary and is essentially called in completely differently ways from game to game.

In fact if you ask me all the contact rules in hockey should be taken apart and written less like (american) football rules with numerous detailed infractions, and more like rugby or soccer rules with few broadly applicable rules.

I hate the idea of trying to penalize shot blocking, especially with the overall quality of refereeing being what it is. Seems completely unfeasible to me, and will only result in another random penalty rule.

As for scoring, I don't see a major problem, but if you do want to do something about it, goalie pads are really the biggest problem. Not just the height but the width. If they were actually optimized for safety, they would wrap around the front of the goalies leg instead of being a straight wall in front of them.

Changing the pads to a rounder shape would make it easier to lift the puck over the goalies leg from up close, and rebound control would require a lot more skill from the goalie.