[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

With the apparent huge need to increase scoring in the NHL (according to many of you), what is the ideal goals/game where you will finally be satisfied and stop tinkering around with the rules?

Eric Duhatschek wrote an article about the issue a few weeks ago:

How can the NHL boost goal scoring? Bigger nets may be the answer

I'd say that mindless dolt who cares nothing for the integrity of the game, David Poile, has it about right.

Now, so many NHL goals are scored in a right-place-right-time sort of way, deflections pin-balling into the net off skates, shin pads and favourable caroms. Goals scored on the rush, on open ice or on a clear breakaway are rare.

Leagues know that scoring helps sell the game better than suffocating defences. Basketball and football have all taken turns tweaking the rules to generate more offence.

Among the NHL general managers, coaches and players interviewed, a surprising number were prepared to at least discuss the notion of making nets bigger to enhance scoring.

“We’re into a 3-2 league now,” Nashville Predators long-time general manager David Poile said. “I would personally prefer a 4-3 league. That’s a big difference, though – that’s two goals per game. How do you find two more goals?”

...Generally, the complaint against larger nets on fan boards is that hockey doesn’t need 10-7 games or soccer-style nets. But, Poile stresses, that isn’t what they’re pondering anyway. The changes would be subtle – prototypes developed from an NHL research and development camp, with one exception offered up by the Buffalo Sabres, do not look appreciably different to the naked eye.

If larger nets are ever implemented, Poile believes “we need to go wider because the goalies are taller and their legs are longer and they can go post to post. It would seem to be a fair thing to do. And they would have to go higher because a lot of goalies virtually play the game on their knees right now. I for one don’t think that was ever meant to be. It doesn’t have to be a lot, but it has to be wider and it has to be taller.”