Grantland "How to fix the NHL"

[Jason14h]

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/...0/how-fix-nhl/

[nik-]

Lot of good ideas in there. Specifically ditching enforcers, more overtime in the regular season, fixing the diving and no more Bettman Cup presentations. Not a fan of the bigger nets, just make goalie equipment for protection again, and not coverage devices.

[Tyler]

The choose a legend to hand you the Cup is stupid.

"Hey Bobby Hull, fly to Boston tonight on the chance we might win the cup. Oh we lost tonight, sorry, are you busy in a couple days?"

He's the commissioner, he should award the Cup. It's been happening for 100 years. Don't change it. I don't care if you don't like the guy, you should at least respect the position.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Tyler

He's the commissioner, he should award the Cup. It's been happening for 100 years. Don't change it. I don't care if you don't like the guy, you should at least respect the position.

Didn't they used to just wheel it out on a table?

[Tyler]

Pretty sure I've seen everyone from Zeigler to Campbell in those NHL cup presentation montages. They may not have handed it off, but they were there.

[nik-]

Well of course they're there, they're the commissioner, but I think some 5'6" dude holding on to the Cup awkwardly making the Captain of the team wait so they can take some pictures just looks ridiculous. And these are pictures that no one cares to look at btw, no one wants to see their player with Bettman and the Cup, just with the Cup.

[Tyler]

Originally Posted by nik-

Well of course they're there, they're the commissioner, but I think some 5'6" dude holding on to the Cup awkwardly making the Captain of the team wait so they can take some pictures just looks ridiculous. And these are pictures that no one cares to look at btw, no one wants to see their player with Bettman and the Cup, just with the Cup.

People remember the Cup being lifted over the captains head. Not the 2 second photo op before. Seriously.

[Joborule]

Agree with first two. Kill the loser point, increase OT to 10 minutes.

[SuperMatt18]

Isn't it easier to just remove the photo op.

Do we really want some legend stumbling through the presentation?

IMO Bettman should still award the cup. Bettman can give his little speech, call the captain over, quick handshake and the captain can grab the cup and lift it above his head.

[Swayze11]

In re: Diving:

First, no more coincidental minor cop-outs, where the ref makes offsetting calls for both the dive and the original foul. From now on, a dive negates the original call.

Never understood when they called a dive that the other player gets a penalty.

[Dogbert]

Originally Posted by Joborule

Agree with first two. Kill the loser point, increase OT to 10 minutes.

Can't ditch the loser point without getting rid of shootouts altogether. Doing so would equate winning/losing a shootout with winning/losing a hockey game, and that is completely unacceptable. They aren't the same, and shouldn't be treated as such.

[skeena1]

A legend presenting the Cup is less problematic than you might think. In every best of 7 final , there are only 4 games where the Cup could be presented. However, among those 4 games, legends from both teams would only have to be there at the same time once - game 7. So, we are looking at a total of a maximum of 5 man(legend)-games necessary. Not so hard. No to mention the fact a lot of legends live in the cities they played in and are likely at most games anyway.

[SofaProfessor]

I like the idea of removing the instigator penalty for wearing a visor. It's silly to encourage players to wear visors to avoid injuries we have seen far too often, but then turn around and penalize them when the gloves come off.

[darthma]

Thanks OP for sharing. That was a great read. I actually agreed with most of what he said, especially in Part I, aside from the Bettman stuff (which I really don't care about either way). I'd also argue that the instigator stuff isn't well implemented. Adding a 'threshold' for fighting majors isn't a good idea in my mind. Imagine if Iggy was at 9 majors. Everyone would be running him.

That said, lots of positives in the article. I really liked how he hyperlinked three AMAZING dives in the part about diving.

[Huntingwhale]

Bettman presenting the cup needs to stay. Booing him is a great hockey tradition that l will be proud to tell me kids years from now.

[Coach]

If was Bettman I would just stand there and embrace the boos. The problem arises when he tries to talk over 16000 people booing their lungs out. I just wouldn't talk until they stopped. Eventually they'd figure it out.

[djsFlames]

Killing the loser point is really going to make people hate shootouts more. Especially on nights where the effort was win worthy. Maybe that's just cause we've never been historically good in the tiebreaker, but to think of how upsetting it already was to have games decided in a skills contest go the other way (as fun and nerve racking as it can be), there was at least always the small consolation of getting that loser point. Take that away and there may be a lot of people with pitchforks soon enough.

But I would say kill the loser point if it's decided in OT, and make it 10 minutes. (no points for losers in OT makes so much more sense). But just keep it a 3-point decision if it goes to shootout.

[Daradon]

Originally Posted by Joborule

Agree with first two. Kill the loser point, increase OT to 10 minutes.

Also hate the loser point, but I can't see that much OT happening, even though I'd love it. The players have such a packed schedule already and it seems to get worse every year. Adding more time, especially when some of it is going to fall on back to back travel days, is not going to go over with the players and may just add noticeably to fatigue and injuries.

One thing I've been thinking about recently, in response to travel costs and fatigue factor is why doesn't the NHL hold 'series' in the regular season like MLB does? I know it wouldn't be as exciting for the fans to see the same team two nights in a row (or twice in three days) but it could really cut down on travel expense AND player fatigue. One huge issue each for both the NHLPA and the owners. And you don't have to change the division of games and opponents to do it, just do it for the ones you can. Your divisional opponents and the conference ones you end up playing four times.

It'd probably cut down on about 20-25% of travel and be a huge help to players who no longer have to do back to backs with travel.

As I said, the only down side I can see is to fans who may take a while to get used to it, but it could be a big payoff. I'm sure they could find something to give back to the fans somehow. Like cleaning up diving! And reffing!

[BACKCHECK!!!]

So a guy gets hooked, then he dives.

The hook still happened. You're not supposed to dive, but you're not supposed to hook either, so both players get penalties. Simple.

If calling a dive means the original penalty is cancelled, most refs will call far fewer dives. Because the initial penalty is usually the obvious one.

Player A gets his stick in Player B's skates. Clear tripping call. Player B goes down and slides into the boards. Was it a dive? Well we know it was a trip, so are we going to cancel a clear and objective tripping penalty for an iffy and subjective diving penalty? Probably not most of the time.

I'd just like to see the clear dives called more often, even if its just for co-incidental minors. I also have no problem with targeting repeat offenders. I'm looking at you, Ryan Kessler.

[You Need a Thneed]

My comments on the article:

1. Fix standing & kill loser point - Agree. Anything is better than the current system. However, the only thing worse than loser points is giving no points at all to the loser of a shootout. My solution, kill the loser point, kill the shootout, 3 point wins, and 1 point ties. Play either 10 minutes of 4 on 4 OT, or 5 minutes 4 on 4 + 5 minutes 3 on 3 (with only one Dman allowed on the ice per team).
2. Loose the puck over glass penalty - I completely agree. Penalize this the same way icing is called. It’s embarrassing when in Playoff OT, obvious interference is ignored, but then an accidental puck over the glass is called every time.
3. Hybrid Icing. – Completely Agree. Play is blown dead, unless the “chasing” forward is clearly ahead in the race.
4. Diving – Completely agree on all points. Do whatever it takes to get rid of it. The media/commentators should mock players who do it, not call it “part of the game”. Dives as obvious as the ones linked in the article shouldn’t be a 2 minute penalty, they should be 5 minutes, game misconduct, and suspension. Allow coaches challenges for one’s like the linked Carcillo one. Coach could challenge the call, it would be reviewed, then Carcillo would be given 5 and a game.
5. Bettman Cup Presentations – I don’t know why it shouldn’t be done by the commissioner. Bettman won’t do presentations any longer after he is eventually replaced.
6. Make the nets bigger. – I wouldn’t do this.
7. Draft Position Changes – I think that the proposed system is a good starting point, but it clearly needs work. Teams can be realistically eliminated a long time before they are officially eliminated. Also, since quite a few teams could be mathematically eliminated with only a game or two left, there could be high variance between how many points each of those teams earned vs how much they actually tried to win their remaining games. Idea needs work, but the current system needs work too.
8. Redefine Late hits – I don’t think that this has been a problem, you generally have a consensus on whether a hit is late. Other parts of a certain hit might be more controversial.
9. Instigators and Fighting – mostly agree with the article. I might make the cutoff 8 fights, maybe 5 fights.
10. Crossover Final – I like the idea of regional rival finals being allowed to happen. However, the given examples are unlikely to happen even with the rule change he listed. Boston and Montreal are in the same division, and the only way that they could potentially meet in a final is to have one of them crossover into the other division’s playoffs, which would require one of them to be 4th or 5th in their own division, and then, win three rounds of the playoffs. It’s quite unlikely to happen even with the change. Still, it’s not a bad idea to implement.
11. Obstruction Rules – Agree that it’s not being called very much again. My solution, call it strictly, but have a zone in front of the net where more stuff would be allowed to go on, sort of like the key in basketball. This would still allow tough defensemen to move players out of that zone.
12. Ref Mics – not an issue to me.
13. Redesign Moratorium – agree.
14. Home whites – doesn’t really matter to me. Perhaps do home whites for the first half of the season, and home darks the second half.
15. Home and Homes – I like this idea.
16. Smaller goalie equipment. – equipment should be for protection only, not for covering more of the net. Pads don’t need to come a foot above the knee. Goalies shouldn’t be able to go into the butterfly, and literally block the entire ice level width of the net.