I know this week’s column places me at risk of losing some of my few-but-loyal readers, but I feel it needs to be written, so bear with me: This column is about hockey.
I see you haven’t turned the page yet, so I’ll keep going.
I could not be happier with the return of the National Hockey League following a season-long hiatus spurred by a 10-month players lockout. I’m well aware that most of America may not have mourned the absence of professional hockey last year, but fans of the sport, such as myself, are in need of it and happy to see it back.
In my opinion, the NHL offers the most exciting playoff action this side of the Big Dance. The 16 teams that make the playoffs are faced with playing a minimum of 16 post-season games in order to raise Lord Stanley’s Cup. That means there are four series to be played with each being best of seven. Don’t think for a minute that the playoffs are without upsets. With every year there is a post-season shakeup favoring an underdog.
Just look at the current caretakers of the Stanley Cup in Tampa Bay. It has been two years since head coach John Tortorella and his Lightning shocked the hockey world by topping Calgary in the 2004 finals. Many never thought they’d see a team from Florida hold the cup for more than one year, much less beat a team from Canada in a hockey series.
The regular season opens today, and there is much to look for in the opening games as the NHL tries to both resurrect and reinvent itself with its $39 million salary cap. The league has implemented a number of new rules and regulations in the hopes of making the game more fast-paced, ultimately favoring the quickest players. One such alteration is the four-foot addition to each offensive zone. This was made to encourage more offensive play, mainly on power plays. The size of the neutral zone is being reduced by four feet, but the blue lines and center line will remain 12 inches wide. ESPN analyst Scott Burnside feels that these changes will provide “much-needed room to create offense.”
The biggest change to the game is the addition of the shoot-out, ending the days of regular season ties. No regular or post-season game will end in a tie or be left solely to overtime to be decided. After a scoreless five-minute overtime period, three players from each team – picked by their coaches – will compete in a shoot-out. This is different from college football, in which statistics and the score are penciled into the archives, with the final score of a game ending in a shoot-out showing the victor winning by only one goal.
It’s clear that sports fans who yearn for a quick ending to a tie game will take joy in this new arrangement. But as with any rule change, this is going to take time to grow accustomed to. Shoot-outs have been used in professional soccer for as far back as I can remember, and still there is a predominant amount of fans who argue against its logic, favoring to see the winner be decided by skill in the field rather than the penalty box. Is the shoot-out going to make every fan happy? Probably not, but only time will tell if it the shoot-out format, or hockey in general, is going to be popular enough to stay.
Another concern I have involves the new limits imposed on the goalkeeper’s equipment. The dimensions of this equipment will be reduced by more than 10 percent. Also instated is a required one-inch reduction (to 11 inches) in the width of leg pads. The blocking glove, upper-body protector, pants and jersey are also going to be reduced. This ultimately gives the shooter more net to work with, which should result in higher scoring games. Goalies can no longer play the puck directly behind the net, unless they do so outside of the inverted, trapezoid-shaped goalie box, which was added in the off-season.
Let’s review where some of hockey’s biggest stars are returning to action. Player moves have given optimism to many teams vying for a spot in the playoffs. They no longer need to play for peanuts in Europe, but might not be playing on the same teams they hailed from in the 2003-2004 season.
Wayne Gretzky is back, but not at the blue line. He is coaching the revamped Coyotes in Phoenix. Paul Kariya is still not a Duck- he’s in Nashville- but Scott Niedermayer sure is. The Blue Jackets picked up Adam Foote. Bobby Holik and Peter Bondra have joined the Thrashers and Sergei Gonchar and Ziggy Palffy are Penguins. To make a long-winded story short, the Stanley Cup is up for grabs.
The biggest thing the NHL needs in order to earn at least a second-string gig in America’s world of sports is patience. Patience from players, fans and the same coaches who have been blamed for coaching the game into extinction. It is essential for hockey’s survival, seeing as it is currently on life-support. Coaches need to realize that the sport is on the brink and needs high-octane offense to become more audience-friendly.
Once fans can figure out their team’s rosters and see the sport for both what it once was and what it is trying to be, they should start coming back to the rinks like a teenager who comes across a cherished childhood trinket boxed away in the attic. People will come. Maybe not today, and maybe not tomorrow, but – someday – people will come … back.

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