What’s your unpopular hockey opinion?

[Machinehead]

*disclaimer - not an actual opinion, here for laughs*

Fights should be Blades of Steel style - you only get the 5 minute penalty if you lose the fight. I want Jon Jones on skates dammit.

I would totally watch a Blades of Steel league with the weird colored teams and everything.

 

[ChaoticOrange]

I would totally watch a Blades of Steel league with the weird colored teams and everything.

Steve MacIntyre would make an immediate and glorious comeback.

I'm a pretty good-sized dude: 6 feet, 225+lb, not in *great* shape but not a blob either - MacIntyre made me feel small. Tiny. He could have crushed my hand into powder if he wanted too - you could tell he was a terrifyingly strong guy just from a handshake. Real nice guy though with some great stories.

 

[Machinehead]

Steve MacIntyre would make an immediate and glorious comeback.

I'm a pretty good-sized dude: 6 feet, 225+lb, not in *great* shape but not a blob either - MacIntyre made me feel small. Tiny. He could have crushed my hand into powder if he wanted too - you could tell he was a terrifyingly strong guy just from a handshake. Real nice guy though with some great stories.

I have a similar story. I'm about 6'2", 215 and I thought Ron Greschner was gonna eat me when I met him. Really chill guy though.

 

[Kaners Bald Spot]

I think Quinn Hughes is the better prospect at the moment, but Adam Boqvist will be the better player long-term.

Kirby Dach has a 5% chance to eclipse Jack Hughes and Kakko as the best player from the 2019 draft. He's insanely talented.

 

[Leksand]

hockey is boring more often than not

My wife and all her friends agree. It’s a popular opinion. I even
like it as it leave s the TV set for me.

 

[Crow]

I’ve seen so many people mention that there should be no draft lottery that I don’t consider that unpopular.

I think the lottery should be completely random with all non playoff teams having an equal chance to prevent tanking. The playoff teams can draft in the current order to preserve parity.

 

[FerrisRox]

A non-hockey fan wouldn't know or care if the product was boring.

You could be a non-hockey fan because the product is boring.

I'm a non-soccer fan because the product is boring.

 

[DickSmehlik]

Falling down to ice to block a shot should be a 2 minute penalty.

Teams that have a 2 man advantage for more than a minute should pull their goalie to make it a 6-3 advantage.

The blueline should me moved so that offsides is not so common.

 

[Jigger77]

Wins should be 3 points
3v3 for 10m instead of 5m and shootout
No OTL point; OTW gets 2 points
2m power plays don’t end on a PPG
Penalty calls can be challenged
Goals not being disallowed due to kicking motion
No hand pass

Not sure guys kicking away at loose pucks in the crease with a blade attached to their foot is a good idea.

 

[VirginiaMtlExpat]

Mine: the NHL does not do nearly enough to prevent injuries to players. The rink is basically what it was 100 years ago. It would be straightforward to re-engineer boards with more give to them, using modern materials (e.g.: composites) possibly spring-loaded to be compliant enough when a player goes into it head or shoulder first, but stiff enough for the puck to still bounce as it does now. It could use personalized musculoskeletal simulation to arrive at a few putative designs, then find the best one with realistic physical experiments with ballistics of human weight. This jibes with Bettman's disingenuous denials of responsibility on concussions and the traditional grey area around fighting, where it would be straightforward to outlaw it completely.

 

[VirginiaMtlExpat]

...

The blueline should me moved so that offsides is not so common.

I also fail to see what offside calls contribute to the game. I don't have a real problem with cherry picking! Open things up for real! After all, basketball allows long passes to forwards well ahead of their teammates.

 

[Machinehead]

You could be a non-hockey fan because the product is boring.

I'm a non-soccer fan because the product is boring.

That means you find the sport boring, not what's being offered by the sport. That's completely different.

 

[CasusBelli]

Not sure guys kicking away at loose pucks in the crease with a blade attached to their foot is a good idea.

Never thought of it from a safety perspective. Just thought it was to preserve the stick-and-puck integrity of the sport.

Excellent point.

 

[FerrisRox]

That means you find the sport boring, not what's being offered by the sport. That's completely different.

No, I find the sport boring and I find what is "being offered by the sport" boring.

 

[DannyGallivan]

I also fail to see what offside calls contribute to the game. I don't have a real problem with cherry picking! Open things up for real! After all, basketball allows long passes to forwards well ahead of their teammates.

Cherry picking would actually slow up the game. It would force defensemen to play way back, kind of how hockey on the big European ice surface is slower paced and more boring than the North American smaller surface rinks.

 

[Machinehead]

No, I find the sport boring and I find what is "being offered by the sport" boring.

You find soccer boring. It doesn't matter what soccer.

I find hockey entertaining but the current NHL boring.

It's different.

 

[member 305909]

After 20 minutes of OT and still no winner there should be a shoot-out. Life is too short for OTs to last longer than the actual match.

 

[Machinehead]

After 20 minutes of OT and still no winner there should be a shoot-out. Life is too short for OTs to last longer than the actual match.

Unlimited OT in the playoffs is the last good thing about the NHL.

 

[Dotter]

Young drafted players hit UFA status way sooner so other teams get a shot at poaching these budding stars. Causing risk the tanking team(s) overpay and find themselves in cap hell within 2 or 3 years of tanking as they are forced to (over)pay their young up-and-coming stars... from potentially losing out in bidding wars.

Get rid of RFA and move up UFA sooner by the age of 21 or 22. So in my proposal, for example, Auston Matthews and Patrik Laine should have hit UFA status in 2018 without any RFA protection for the drafting team.

Or

Remove any compensation for offersheets. Find a way to reward teams throwing out offersheets. If offersheet team wins the offersheet, the losing team get no draft pick compensation in return. They just lose.

Lastly, stop raising the cap, but rather, make coaches and training staff behind the bench part of their teams' cap.

TMLs should have over $6 million less to spend on their roster.

 

[mobilus]

This thread is tailor made for a guy I know. He doesn't have Gretzky in his All-Time Top 10 because he "wasn't physical enough to be a real hockey player."

 

[Machinehead]

At even strength, Kevin Shattenkirk is worse at offense than he is at defense.

Maybe it was different early in his career, but the last 3-4 years, he's a very good PP player who's passable in his own zone and doesn't drive 5v5 offense at all.

 

[Avsboy]

More netting

 

[Mikeshane]

Jets do better than the Blues do in the 19-20 season.
McDavid's injury/recovery was the bigger more meaningful story over the summer than Marner's contract.

 

[Hockeyfan2390]

The netting on top of the glass must be black - not white. White is too distracting.

 

[shello]

I don't care about expanding the league and if anything I wish a few teams folded. 32 teams for the NHL seems like too much