Quote:
Originally Posted by jayswin
Just think of how this presents itself to the casual/new/potential fan. Not very well. Hockey is losing (and I begrudgingly agree it has to) what attracted so many people to the game; it's toughness.
The hard hitting, glove dropping nature of the game that separated it from it's competition is going the way of the dodo. Which would be fine if fast paced, edge of your seat, chance swapping action was in it's place, but instead I'd argue we're back to where we were in the late 90's/early 2000's where coaches have mastered the offense out of the game in favour of perfect defense.
I don't see why it isn't time to revamp the game a little, just like we did over a decade ago, to reset the game so to speak, and force coaches to have to adapt all over again.
Tre nailed it, literally as soon as the teams are set in the zone it's like shooting into a brick wall and a good chunk of a 60 minute hockey game is players just kind of skating and passing around aimlessly, hoping for a shred of daylight. Sure, it feels great when one finally does get through, but there's very little threatening offense in the game today. It's just about boringly keeping possession until maybe something opens up.
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I am not sure what to fix per se, but I agree with you here. I also don't think it is a matter of disliking the game (finding something missing is not disliking the game, come on Cecil).
For me, what is missing is that raw emotion. There are too many sterile games these days. Team A scores a goal. Then they play shut-down defence that just smothers the life out of the hockey game. Team B has a lot of shot attempts and possession, but they just keep getting blocked or are easy saves. There aren't very many hits, not many scrums, not many fights (not that I say bring back a couple fights a game, but that sure did spur emotion in a game).
Coaches have smothered the life out of the games. Tight defensive hockey. Shot blocking. Watch what you say or do when you are up so you don't take a penalty or give the other team something to rally around.
It is still a great game, but it has become sterile too often. Some games are just fantastic though, that's for sure.
One thing that I feel could really improve on the emotion aspect is having 4 teams from each division make the playoffs and actually have to play one another, rather than go the wildcard route. It is more fair to go the wildcard route, but having increased rivalries within a division would benefit the emotion side of the game at least. Just a thought. Sucks when you are in a really tough division and you end up out of the playoffs, and look at the other division in the conference and see a team sneak in with 10+ less points than your team, but maybe that is the trade-off for building rivalries again.