Shinzawa: How I'd improve the NHL if I were commissioner
• Go back to the old playoff format. I do not believe the 1-8 conference seeding was broken. It makes regular-season achievement meaningful.
• Instruct the referees to be aggressive on penalizing coaches and players for complaining. You see it after almost every call — screaming and whining and crying during the skate to the penalty box. It is downright jarring, on the other hand, to see a player make his way off the ice with his mouth shut.
• Encourage more regular-season division play. This is what promotes rivalries: six or more showdowns, some of them back-to-back. Hate initiates conflict, which leads to mayhem. That’s what everyone wants to see, not home-and-away guarantees of the Bruins playing the Coyotes, for example.
• Have coaches and players wear microphones during games and air the sound on broadcasts. This is the stuff that makes all-access television crackle: the insults, swears and wisecracks.
• Change the draft age to 19 and older. It is hard enough to project whether an AHL player will become a full-timer in the NHL. Trying to do the same with an 18-year-old is throwing darts with a blindfold.
• Scrap the offside challenge. See ya later. Good riddance. We won’t miss you.• Go back to the old playoff format. I do not believe the 1-8 conference seeding was broken. It makes regular-season achievement meaningful.
• Instruct the referees to be aggressive on penalizing coaches and players for complaining. You see it after almost every call — screaming and whining and crying during the skate to the penalty box. It is downright jarring, on the other hand, to see a player make his way off the ice with his mouth shut.
• Encourage more regular-season division play. This is what promotes rivalries: six or more showdowns, some of them back-to-back. Hate initiates conflict, which leads to mayhem. That’s what everyone wants to see, not home-and-away guarantees of the Bruins playing the Coyotes, for example.
• Have coaches and players wear microphones during games and air the sound on broadcasts. This is the stuff that makes all-access television crackle: the insults, swears and wisecracks.
• Change the draft age to 19 and older. It is hard enough to project whether an AHL player will become a full-timer in the NHL. Trying to do the same with an 18-year-old is throwing darts with a blindfold.
• Introduce the north-south camera angle on TV. Think of video games like EA Sports’ NHL series. This could allow viewers to see patterns unfold, like on the power play. This is hard to discern on the traditional east-west view.
• Give the green light to advertisements on uniforms. Let’s face it: Hockey-related revenue will continue to take a beating. Perhaps this could be one way to put some cash back in the drawer.
• Let the teams conduct the year’s NHL Draft from their respective cities. Yes, social distancing is on my mind. But there’s now really no need to have everyone in the sport congregate in one location. That’s why the NHL postponed the draft that was scheduled to happen in Montreal in late June.