Quote:
Originally Posted by Dion
The biggest problem for me is that there are too many teams in the league. Gone are the heated rivalries where games got personal and fans and players eagerly anticipated the rematch. Ohhh how i miss the 80's and the battles of Alberta where Semenko and Hunter would be at each others throats and Neil Sheehy yapping at Gretzky constantly to get him off his game.
The speed of the game has made the North American size of the rink too small. Scoring is way down and the size of the ice surface makes it hard for the leagues best players to showcase thier talent. Imagine what a player like Gaudreau and others like him could do if we switched to Olympic sized ice. The 3 on 3 hockey in OT has given us a glimpse of what the game could be.
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I've never bought the argument that bigger ice = more scoring. The only time that happens is during Olympic tournaments or high end tournaments when you can role 4 highly skilled lines and 6 elite level blueliners.
When I've watched euro hockey on occasion, all I've seen is that teams will clog the neutral zone even more, the fore check basically goes away as do board battles and teams go to a zone defense.
I tend to think that the hockey would be worse because the NHL coaches and players would be even more cautious against allowing chances.
Besides the owners would never approve a change to IHL sized ice because of lost revenue.