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Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger
I don't really buy either of your arguments. It honestly just sounds like you don't like hockey and your version of it isn't the actual sport...
Hockey will never be teams just trading chances back and forth and it never has been.
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A lot of long-time fans find today's games often boring. And there was a time when there were several odd-man rushes a period. The term 'end to end action' is synonymous with exciting hockey. It's also something you rarely see anymore.
Nostalgia may be a part of it. But that isn't all of it. Eric Duhatschek knows a bit about hockey. Fair to say he's a fan of the sport. And he was on the radio yesterday criticizing how dull and structured the game is today. His take is that in tight games nobody changes the stifling systems they play, and more goals would make teams have to play more aggressively to come back from behind.
You think the NHL is great as it is - that's fine. But the NHL isn't worried about you. You'll be following the sport regardless. What it has to concern itself with is older fans tuning out, and younger people not becoming fans in the first place. All major professional sports are seeing declines in audiences. The people who run the league cannot take it for granted that the product on the ice is fine and doesn't need to change. If a casual turns on a game on a Wednesday night in January and nothing exciting happens on the ice in a period, he'll go back to watching Game of Thrones or playing Call of Duty, and maybe not even bother switching to the hockey game next time.