Ice hockey fans input needed

[underpants]

In this undated photo released by the Buffalo Sabres, a Buffalo Sabres employee demonstrates a new style net the team designed in Buffalo, N.Y. The new design features curved posts and crossbar, creating an opening that's 13 percent larger than the old NHL standard. The new design will be one of three to be discussed for consideration when the league's general managers meet in Detroit April 8-9, 2005. (AP Photo/Buffalo Sabres)

Sabres Propose Larger, Rounded Nets
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=565&ncid=1360&e=1&u=/ap/hkn_bigger_nets

BUFFALO, N.Y. - First, blue ice. Now, funky-looking, rounded hockey nets. The Buffalo Sabres aren't lacking for ideas on how to improve the appearance of the game — once the NHL resumes playing


After experimenting two weeks ago with new ice-surface colors, including orange blue lines, the Sabres have designed a new goal cage that features outwardly curving posts and an upwardly curving crossbar. The new design expands the opening of the standard 6-by-4-foot net by about 13 percent in an effort to increase scoring.


The Sabres' design will be one of three up for consideration when NHL general managers meet next week in Detroit. The other designs are proposed by the league — one that is similar to the Sabres' model and another that simply increases the size of the current rectangular nets.

[BlueManDude]

1. as an alternative they could...

reduce the amount of padding the goalies are allowed to wear. If you've been to a game lately you've no doubt seen that these guys are now decked out like football players on skates. Ditch the mandatory helmet. Contract the league getting rid of Columbus, one FL team, Atl a few others.

Not crazy about that net.

[realisticphish]

7. get rid of columbus my ass

The Bluejackets are hugely popular here

[MessiahRp]

20. If they're going to contract...

Don't do it from the Midwest...

There are warm weather clubs in Georgia, North Carolina, Florida, California and Arizona that have no business being in the hockey game (same could be said for Dallas but they actually draw).

Hockey is primarily a winter sport and a blue collar sport. Keep the teams in places that actually HAVE a winter and lower the prices so that the average workers can attend and bring their families and the sport would thrive again. For some reason they price themselves like the NBA and it's not a fair comparison.

Contract many of the warm weather teams, get a team in Cleveland and Milwaukee and watch the league thrive.

Rp

[JimmyJazz]

2. Is that in an effort to have higher scoring games?

I know that there are people who feel that might be more popular if the games were higher scoring.

[opiate69]

3. Hate it. I don't know why they're so obssessed with

increasing scoring. I, as a long tme hockey fan (and a former goalie), don't want to see games with scores like 10-8 become a regular occurence.

[AwareOne]

4. Nobody could defend that net, it's ridiculous

The league is looking for simple solutions to get more asses in the seats and I guess the logic is more scoring, more fans. Not for me, I'm to much of a purist. I's rather see a tense 1-0 game of skill.

[On the Road]

5. That Net is Awfully Big

it's a goalie's nightmare.

Under current rules, there's always a potential for a score because shots can taken from almost anywhere, even center ice, and there are always chances for a bad bounce, a seeing-eye pass, or a breakaway. That creates a certain amount of suspense and uncertainty even in low-scoring games. The flow of play is what's fascinating, not the number of times the puck goes in the net.

High-scoring games are usually not as interesting as hard-fought low-scoring games. Indoor soccer and arena football are NOT improvements on the original sport.

[underpants]

9. Making a different goal in the "top" level creates a different game

I'm not an ice hockey fan myself (the responses here are about what I expected) but changing the goal/field does NOT equate to higher interest.

In every other sport there are certain standards.

Football-the size of the field and the goalposts are standard (mostly) from level to level

Basketball-the goal is completely standard (though there are some 8' rims for little kids which is good) so a shot made in the front yard is the same shot at Madison Square Garden. BTW-TWO basketball will fit through a standard rim at the same time, something that should be demostrated to kids the first day of each season.

Baseball-Okay the distance between the bases changes from little league to the majors as does the distance of the mound and all parks are slightly different (shut up AL fans!!) but the plate is the same.

Changing the goals/field drastically (Indoor soccer and arena football as you point out) leads more people to "well on a normal field" comparison and distracts from the game.

[KamaAina]

14. Other sports have tweaked the rules over the years

Football: Remember when the goalposts were on the goal line? When kickoffs were from the 40? When holding was a 15-yard penalty?

Basketball: Both the shot clock and the three-point shot are relatively recent. Then you have things like the intentional foul rule...

Baseball: (AL) Two words: designated hitter.

Actually I was thinking about moving the blue lines in closer to the goals, thereby creating more space around center ice AND compressing the attacking zones.

Edit: speling

[kick-ass-bob]

22. what about dropping the center line for 2 line passes?

I'd like to see this too.

[kick-ass-bob]

23. .

wrong spot.

[CatholicEdHead]

6. Bigger net will not bring more NHL fans

that is not the League's problem.

Their ecnonomic model is spatially displaced too far to the south of their fan base.

Their fan base is the northern US and southern Canada. Not the Gulf Coast.

[realisticphish]

8. The reason hockey great

well, one reason, is that there is a huge release of energy when that 1 goal of a 1-0 game is scored (kind of similar to a low-scoring football game). higher scoring makes the game more boring

[LSdemocrat]

10. Just crack down on fighting and thuggery in general

If you really want to make the game more offensive minded, legalize the two-line pass.

[realisticphish]

12. yeah, the 2-line pass

definately needs to be legalized. get a long game going, rather than a lot of contact/checking play

[slestak]

13. No-touch icing

would speed the game up.

[MrSlayer]

11. Dumb idea.

They should stop the goalies from wearing ridiculously oversized equipment before changing the size of the goals. The problem with the game stems from the fact that there are too many teams and there is too much minor league talent playing in a major league. The reason for all the clutching and grabbing is that a lot of the players simply aren't talented enough to stop the stars by any other means. Reduce the league back to 21 teams, get rid of the stupid instigator rule and everything will be fine.

[devilgrrl]

15. I'm with you!

Get rid of some of the teams, shitty minor-league talent players, smaller goalie equipment.

Check out these two pictures and see the difference in equipment size:

Gerry Cheevers

Olaf Kolzig

[Tweed]

16. The leg pads look comical in comparison

[realisticphish]

17. You know how to make hockey popular

FUCKING ADVERTISE IT. ESPN rarely if ever has anything longer than a 2 minute blurb about hockey (the one exception was the season cancellation). and it totally ignores college hockey. I watched ESPN all weekend, and saw ONE mention of the frozen four. and all they did was show who was playing each other, then went on to talk about football drafts.

Hockey is fine the way it is. The fact is, anyone who actually goes to a hockey game falls in love with it. Happened to me, the first game i went to. Just get people to come ONCE, and the league will do a hell of a lot better.

Also, to those who keep talking about reducing the league: shut up. I'm assuming all of you are fans of one of the 21 original. But I'm not. and I'll be damned if i'm going to change loyalties. They lose the bluejackets, and the NHL loses me forever

[MrSlayer]

18. When did you go to your first game?

If it was a Blue Jackets game and you've never watched it before then you simply don't realize what crap it is today. Overexpansion has destroyed the game. Watch some games from the 80's and early 90's and compare it to the slogging drek we are watching today and tell me there's no difference. You think Rick Nash is great to watch? Imagine having 4 other guys that good at their position on the ice at the same time, 7 or 8 on the team and cycling only three lines. Imagine a game where he can skate through the neutral zone without some AHL skill level dog hanging on his back or holding him. Imagine a game where the players policed themselves and didn't dive or fake injuries to draw cheap penalties. NHL Hockey is a brilliant sport but is a shell of itself and the main reasons are overexpansion and dumb rule changes.

[realisticphish]

19. it sounds to me

like just a matter of rule changes. actually my first game was college hockey, not NHL. Frankly, i prefer NCAA to the NHL.

I agree that there need to be changes to the rules. ESPECIALLY stupid shit like the instigator rule. And i definately agree on reducing the amount of padding goalies are allowed to wear. But it seems to me that reducing the number of teams is the exact wrong way to go about improving the sport, or at least the popularity (if that is your goal)(goal, ha). Here, for example, in only 4 years the Blue Jackets have become extremely popular, in an area not usually known for hockey. That has also influenced college hockey, which has also gotten more popular (and BETTER) in that time. But reducing the numbers of teams, as I can see it, would simply destroy local fan bases, and cause a loss of interest.

I think the rule changes alone would greatly improve the game (especially allowing the players to police themselves) and would then in turn reduce the number of low-talent players in the league (if you know that you're going to have guys who've been playing for 15 years smashing into you when you fuck up, you just might stay in the AHL a couple more years)

[ProfessorGAC]

21. A Little Too Big

I think the way to do it is to take the proportions of the average goalie from 1930, add the padding of today's goalie, and increase the area of the goal by that proportion. That way goalies don't get killed, but the extra space taken up by the excess padding/protection, doesn't amek the scoring areas too small.

Goalies did not take up the space they take up now when i played, and they wore quite a bit of padding. Not as much as now, though.

In order to accentuate the speed of the game though, and make it more marketable, i'd lose the two line pass rule. If a team wants to play fast break hockey, they should get to. The fastest teams would then have an advantage, and dump & rush would be consigned to the ashheap of hockety history, where it belongs.

In addition, faster long ice games would mean less clutch and grab defense, since it would be nearly impossible to not get called for crosschecking, holding, or hooking if everyone is exposed between the two bluelines. I'd also move the blue lines about 10 feet closer to each goal.

Lastly, i'd ban fighting 100%. Instantaneous 60 minute penalty as soon as you drop gloves. The 60 minutes carries over to the next game, as well. Having a goon the coach can't play would be the first reason to not have a goon on one's team. I'd increase the penalties for roughing, boarding, slashing to 5 minutes. Twice in a game and you're out! No replacement of the missing player after a goal, and spearing is a 10 minute, lost man on ice penalty.

The game is missing out on the 90 million american sports fans who DON'T care about hockey out of deference to the quarter-million troglodytes who would actually stop watching hockey if the rough stuff were eliminated. Time to change the thinking on how to make the game the popular sport it should be.
The Professor

[kick-ass-bob]

24. Keep the goal the same.

Make them tone down their pads, fergodsakes!
Kill the center line for 2-line pass calls. That would have somewhat the same effect as extending the blue lines for a bigger neutral zone.

But what do I know, I just live in NC :eyes:

[Oreo]

25. My mind isn't letting me comprehend that picture!

Why don't they just make it bigger instead of bowing it out like that?

[ninty]

26. The problem isn't the nets, or the goatender equipment

The problem is the all the obstruction. The NHL is totally looking past the real problem. If you eliminate the clutching and grabbing and holding, you create more offence. Once that happens, you get more goals. It's pretty simple to me. Want to know how to get rid of holding and all that stuff? Have the reffs actually call the penalties. And have them call it all the time. Not just in the first 2 periods, call it with a minute left in the third. They also need to call it when playoff spots are on the line and also in the playoffs when a team is on the verge of being eliminated. If they call the penalties whenever there’s a penalty, then the players will stop doing it after they know their going to get called for it. But they'll go back to doing it if they know they won't get called because there’s 5 minutes left in the game. Very easy way to generate offence.

Personally, I find hockey the greatest sport out there. I’m Canadian, and I’ll always watch hockey. When the lockout ends, and the first game happens, I’ll be watching. I could sit down and watch a Florida Atlanta game and I’d be happy. I don’t think there’s really anything wrong with the game. Just call the penalties and its fine to me. I suppose the reason for wanting more fans is that the league isn’t sustainable in its current state. Hopefully a new CBA could take care of that and then you wouldn’t have to rely on those Americans who would rather go to the beach than watch hockey for revenue.

[KamaAina]

27. Because then they'd have to drill new holes in the ice

possibly in every arena at every level, all the way down to Danbury, Conn. (UHL). That's quite a few holes!

Hence, the Dali-esque net, that looks as though it would be more in place on the Mighty Ducks' logo :-)