Rubberneck
Registered User
- Jul 28, 2016
- 169
- 2
Was watching this video and it prompted me to type a few thoughts.
With regard to scoring, do what they said -- minus the making nets bigger. I think they might change their mind on the shootouts, if they added any goals scored in the shootout to regular season totals. Maybe keep old overtime rules for post-season, though. Also, slightly up the number of penalty shots taken after regulation. I think the shootout idea is also good because it relaxes some of the physical demands (on players) over the course of the regular season as well.
I also realized --after watching this video-- that I am not the only one squinting at the screen when players dive head first into pucks. This is absurd, and needs to be addressed, too.
The instigator rule needs to be abolished (or whatever step fixes this subsequent problem). I don't want to see the best players pushed around like little *****. Protect your best players or the game is going to die. Ask yourself a question, if when you watched the Olympics, the best talent was not involved -- instead, you watched the athletes who *ahem* got rid of the opposition. Would you really have any interest in watching it at all? You probably would not even watch the 5 minutes of it that you do now -- i.e. would you really watch people swim in a pool if there were no Michael Phelps? etc.
It is not a surprise that the NHL is fostering a higher than normal violence and aggression factor, as compared to other sports -- even compared to football, which is predicated on violence. How is that possible? It's very simple. If people obey the rules (and the rules are wisely crafted), then you can have controlled violence that is within the acceptable parameters. But, if you allow the cheap shots, any of the cheap violence that goes on in general, you create a different kind of sporting atmosphere -- you change the atmosphere on this one variable. If at anytime you feel that you can be hit (cheap) in the worst way, and there won't even be any consequence for it? Not even that one factor that used to keep it at a minimum (one of your big guys evening the score), then you are sitting on a bit of a powder keg. A powder keg not only for the players, but also for the fans who become enraged when these exploits are inflicted on their best talent (or any of their players).
If you watch the Chase Utley slide from a couple years ago in the World Series (post season, not World Series), most people would agree he was out of bounds on that (and I think highly of Utley). I remember thinking to myself, if anyone other than Utley had done this, they would want his head. This was one game and one incident; it caused a lot of stir. Certainly, if stuff like this was happening in every MLB game, people would be up in arms, and they would demand that something be done. Why? Because everyone would be on edge expecting an injury or some kind of major fight every single game, not to mention that it is cheating? Here is the funny thing, that is exactly the current circumstance in hockey. It isn't sustainable, not with the modern speed and strength of players -- it is barely sustainable when the game is played properly, let alone played in the current state. I want to see these guys fishing with their kids and stuff like that after they retire, not forgetting where they are every 5 minutes and falling down on the floor repeatedly for no reason.
Who knows, maybe that is what they want. Maybe they want an insane bench clearing brawl for all times. Complete pandemonium -- including players using their skates as machetes and sticks as lightSabres. That will be the moment everyone collectively remembers, 'hey, hockey is far out man! We need to start watching hockey again! Woo!'
If video above is not displaying:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9mDkVktFyM
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