Quote:
Originally Posted by Erick Estrada
Ben Bishop is an average goaltender that just happens to be massive. It's all about covering the net and making yourself big. JS Giguere made a very nice career out of wearing oversized equipment and being big rather than outright skill.
I don't think there's a fix for the lack of creativity because coaches will always create the systems to take away the opposition's skill and level the playing field. It only took one season for the league to put the clamps down on the Flames stretch pass transition game. Plus teams all collapse in front of the net taking away shots as it's pretty rare that shots from the blue line even make it to the net and if it does it has to beat a goaltender that's so big he covers 2/3 of the net. You aren't going to see guys like Lafleur skating in on the wing shooting pucks on the net because defensemen are back and are going to get a stick or their body in front of the shot. Also now 4th line players can play hockey. There's no room for goons and plugs which means top lines can't exploit substandard talent on the ice like they could in Lafleur's days. Matt Stajan in the early 80's would be a 60 point player but today he's a 4th line center in the NHL.
I don't think you will ever see the fire wagon hockey that Lafleur misses but at least shrinking the equipment would result in more goals and more goaltenders to sink or swim with actual elite skill over these hulking guys that use their bodies to take away the angles and space. There's no quick fix though as the game has changed and players are all bigger, faster, and better.
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But that is the question. Why are coaches trying to win by being defensive instead of offensive? Because the rules allow it. In the NFL, coaches are under pressure to win too but they do coach offensively, it's no longer 3 yards and a cloud of dust. The league has made defending harder.
The NHL has also tried to make defending harder but it seems their rules change have been counter-intuitive.
Some examples:
1) clutching a grabbing/interference
You'd think this would help the offense but in the past the offensive team would also hold defenders, knock them over and run picks. Can you imagine if you couldn't run picks in a basketball offensive set? That's how the NHL is.
2) no change after an icing.
You think it's an advantage against tired players but in the past, teams could counter-attack off of a defensive faceoff win, now they are too tired. If you go back and watch the famous Lemieux goal in the 87 Canada Cup that came off of a icing. Today's rules Lemieux wouldn't have been on the ice (can't change) and the tired players would have cleared the zone and gone to overtime. Also they can't launch counter attacks from their own zone because they are scared to ice the puck, which leads to:
3) puck over the glass
Defenders are scared to shoot the puck high on the glass which is the easiest way to clear the zone and launch a counter attack. So now they just dribble it out and the teams play catch back and forth in the neutral zone.
So with all these supposed rules to help offense, instead just makes the defense hunker down and soak in pressure instead of stealing the puck and going on the counter. So the game has less flow. This is also because of short shifts but we can't do anything about that.