[Jiri Hrdina]

Interesting discussion.
For me overall I still enjoy sports and hockey. My approach has always been to enjoy the highs and not be dragged down by the lows. Sports is a fun distraction, not something to impact my mood negatively.
My passion is not what it used to be but that is largely a function of having way more important things in my life.

On advanced stats, I’m not a big stats guy but I have come to appreciate them somewhat. I think the traditional stats, such as plus/minus and shots are quite poor. So I see value in some of the new measurements such as high danger scoring chances. But I also believe that hockey has more randomness and luck to it compared to something like baseball where the 1:1 matchup between a batter and pitcher is perfectly suited to analytics. But I see value in both stats and the eye test. I do think those that dismiss advocates of advanced stats as “geeks” are taking an immature and ignorant stance. If you don’t find value in them – fine. But don’t look down your nose at those that do, particularly when clearly you haven’t taken time to understand. Just because you don’t understand something doesn’t give you the right to attach childish labels to a group that finds value in them. In short – grow up.

I think there are some things that could make hockey more enjoyable to sports fans.
Sportsnets’ presentation is poor compared to what TSN used to do. That’s been a step back.
Locally who ever replaced Peter Maher was going to have a tough gig but I find Wills to be particularly bad. Personal taste but he just doesn’t tap into the emotion of the game. I think we are lucky to have Ball and Hrudey. And I like Loubo. But I grew up on radio PBP so that step back has been a hard one.
The in-game presentation at the dome is probably the worst in the league. Vegas has a loud crowd but they also do way more to get the crowd fired up. Louder music. More current music. The weird drum troop. Energy everywhere. The Flames just don’t do enough of that. How long have they been running the Tim Horton’s doughnut challenge? I know it is sponsored but you have to keep things fresh. Every other rink I have been at is materially better at the game presentation and that helps create an atmosphere.

The biggest thing for me is how the game needs to evolve.
- Goalie pads should get smaller. Promote offense
- The game needs to get rid of fighting. Now. With what we now know about concussions you can’t have guys punching each other in the head. You can’t.
- More broadly the game needs to figure out how remain an engaging sport while changing the nature of physicality. Checking must become about taking the puck away from the puck carrier and anything more than that is a penalty. This evolution is required by all sports or they will die. Hockey has amongst the best ability to do that but it needs to embrace skill and speed over brawn. This is starting to happen but that evolution needs to accelerate. Some fans will leave. That’s ok. It needs to happen.

A turning point for me was watching Dion lay a guy out in the pre-season years ago. I think it might have been a very young Okposo. As I saw the kid lying there out cold, I realized I don’t want to see that anymore.

For me my perception of the sports has changed a lot. I find great joy in it still but from different things. I love that a guy like Johnny can not only play in the league now but excel. That’s great. Lean into that.

The greatest thing about being a fan of any team is there is always next year!