I'm in the camp that does want to see an increase in scoring but thinks the only way it should be accomplished is to actually call the damned penalties when they occur. Post-2005-Lockout hockey when average goals per game were closer to 6 than 5. Clear hooking, holding, interference and diving calls are routinely let go, as they were in the dead puck era. Make the calls, play style will adjust to avoid being penalized, and the game will open up more.
Particularly interference call standards could be easily adjusted. Simply put, you cannot impede a guy who chips the puck by you and then goes after it. This is routine - winger chips puck in at the line, defenseman runs into him and holds him up. Not called because winger just had possession. But unless it's a bodycheck, it's the absolute definition of what should be considered interference.
One specific rule change I might consider would be changing icing, so that you're required not just to touch the puck on the attacking side of the red line, but actually have possession of the puck. Taking out the red line was supposed to increase game speed but has instead resulted in a tactic of firing the puck off a forward's stick at the blue line. Then the defending team retrieves and fires it the other way. It's just created longer-range dump ins.
__________________
"The great promise of the Internet was that more information would automatically yield better decisions. The great disappointment is that more information actually yields more possibilities to confirm what you already believed anyway." - Brian Eno
|