Quote:
Originally Posted by Resolute 14
The way the game is now, I'm not sure it will cause dramatic changes. More breakaways, definitely, but the impact might be about the same as removing the two line pass.
The offside rule is itself a relic of the time when forward passing wasn't allowed. They slowly changed that rule by creating three zones and allowing forward passing in the defensive and neutral zones.
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The offside rule was introduced after the legalization of the forward pass. Prior to the legalization of the forward pass, there was no need for the offside rule because there was no advantage to be gained by entering the offensive zone ahead of the play.
In an effort to increase scoring, the forward pass was fully-legalized in all zones at the start of the 1929-30 season. The change was so effective that scoring more than doubled from the previous season. In order to bring scoring down, a new rule was introduced midseason that was an early version of the offside rule.
In 1928-29 scoring was so bad that only one team in the entire league (10 teams) averaged more than 2 goals per game, and only barely. Boston scored 89 goals in 44 games. Chicago was so bad that year that they averaged less than 1 goal per game, scoring 33 goals in 44 games.
The following season, in 1929-30, by December 21 (when the offside rule was introduced), Chicago had already scored 10 more goals in only 12 games than they had scored in the full 44 the previous season.
Even with the offside rule, scoring was still way up. By the end of that season, every team averaged more than 2 goals per game. Half the league was over 3 goals per game, and Boston was over 4. Chicago's goal output increased more than 3.5 times from the previous season.