Posted on 06/10/2005 7:49:11 AM PDT by airborne
MISSISSAUGA, Ont. - The torrent of ideas and concepts continued to flow here on Day 3 of the National Hockey League's Research and Development Camp just outside Toronto.
Wednesday morning's session featured two more intriguing ideas that have NHL front office people starting the countdown to the demise of stagnant, defensive hockey.
The session tested two major rules. The first sounds more complicated than it is, but basically, when an attacking team crosses the blue line and enters an opponent's zone, the center red line becomes the line that the attacking team must hold. If the puck goes out, over the red line, the team must regroup and enter the attacking zone under the traditional method before the red line comes into play again. In effect, the blue lines would be "on" when a team is entering an attacking zone and "off" once it is established.
Camp planners decided to pair this rule with another twist -- restricting goaltenders from handling the puck outside the crease.
What we witnessed was an incredibly interesting twist on the game. Suddenly, without so much as painting a new line or moving any of the boards, the ice surface looked and felt much bigger. The over-age junior and college players participating in the experiment caught on easily, and it wasn't long before passes were flying back and forth between defensemen and a forward on the half boards.
Some NHL coaches and general manages quickly envisioned running set plays like a half-court offense in basketball, while others pondered the defensive aspects of such a game.
(Excerpt) Read more at nhl.com ...
LOL! I've always been fond of that epithet. Extremely descriptive, even though I have no idea what it means.
The end. Period.
(I just have to add that the idea of restricting the goalies to the crease would reduce the number of up-ice charges. A goalie who can go behind the net and hit an defenseman near the red line really opens up the fast break opportunities.)
SD
Did the Phantoms win the Calder Cup last night?
Or re hire the current players under new, cheaper contracts.
How about eliminating the center line altogether and make the ice surface wider.
Go Wolves!!!!
(I'm a Penguins fan)
I'll second that!!
LET'S GO PHANTOMS !!!
Shot clocks work in basketball because the rules of the two sports make it much more difficult to steal a basketball than to steal a puck in hockey. When playing defense in hockey, you always have the option of knocking the puck-carrier on his @ss to impede his progress -- thus making hockey much more of a transition-type of game than basketball is.
Good points there!
One of the great things about the NHL historically is that ice surfaces were not all the same size. This provided some variety that doesn't exist anymore.
I saw Al Montoya do that for Michigan this year. The other team was on a line change, dumped it in, Montoya got it and passed to a breaking winger (I think it was) on the side of the ice away from the benches, and that winger got in behind the defense before they could regroup after the line change.
Pretty exciting play, though I am not sure it would happen at the NHL level too often--you hardly ever see a defensive pair make a mistake like that. But that is some of fun of college hockey IMO.
Ha ha, no love lost between Philly and Pittsburgh.
Game 4 is tonight. They lead Chicago 3 games to 0.
Phantoms sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!!!!!!
Having grown up in Florida in the 1960's and 70's, I have absolutely no idea what all of that that means.
Not that, as a Northern transplant, I'm not trying. I figured out how curling is scored this year. :-)
YUes it was vague and non-convincing, A - you ignored how horid the sport of basketball has become inspite of your wonderous shot clock, and B - you failed to address any of the inherent differences between hockey and basketball which make what was at best a so-so idea in basketball and absolute STUPID idea for hockey.
And now with the shot clock basketball is STILL boring, actually it's gotten MORE boring. The shot clock does nothing but force bad shots that make deep turn overs that wind up meaningless. They'd get more milage actually enforcing the rules, when was the last time traveling was called on a million dollar player in the NBA? Not a single one of them knows how to go for a dunk without taking 8 steps without a dribble, but none of the refs have apparently even heard of the rule.
Thwe three point shot made basketball suck in every possible way, it was the final step in destroying what once was an interesting sprot. Now it's nothing but missed shots from far away, and stupid showboat dunks.
The NHL season got canceled because the owners and the PA are morons. An NBA season almost got canceled for the same reason, their turn could be next. I don't care how popular hockey is compared to anything else, it's still the best sport ever invented requiring more athletic talent from the athletes than any other sport and smarter coaches. And if hockey has any problems right now it's that they've been letting one of the masterminds behind the ruination of the NBA be in charge of the premier level of the sport for far too long. They should send Bettman back to the NBA where maybe he'll invent the 4 point line causing mediocre shooter to miss even MORE shots from even FURTHER away, yeah that's bound to make the sport watchable.
Hockey will survive the work stoppage. The NHL might not but hockey will. The work stoppage has done wonders for the minor leagues. And plenty of people have already noticed this fact, people too smart to the stultifyingly monotonous psuedo-sport every level of basketball has become.
I don't give a damn if it's never going to match the popularity of anything. None of the music I listen to will ever reach the popularity of Madona. None of the TV shows I watch will ever reach the popularity of Bay Watch. And I'm OK with all those things because what I learned a long time ago is that what's more popular is rarely better, in fact often times what's really popular totally sucks and is frankly insulting. Judging something's quality by it's popularity leads to shallowness of thought.
Actually the NHL started with 10 teams, then shrunk to what if often refered to as the Original 6 (and actually not all of the Original 6 were in the really original league). Of course the Original 6 era ended in the 60s, and all major leagues started off small, remember the mighty NFL started in a garage in Canton Ohio.
The most likely league to take over is the AHL, and has almost as many teams as the NHL, many in NHL cities and many in cities the NHL should have expanded to instead of the southward push.
None of which changes the fact that the shot clock has done nothing to prevent basketball from deteriorating to pure monotony, and it would be an even worse idea for hockey. Like I said before, in basketball a player can stand around and not get knocked on his but there needs to be something to force ball movement to help a team that's behind be able to get turn overs. The shot clock is the answer they chose, it isn't the write answer but it's the one they chose and it kind of sort of works, it achieves the goal anyway it just has really bad side effects like forcing ill prepared shots that turn into pathetic misses. In hockey a player can't just stand there with the puck, for a team to eat clock they must move the puck, which risks turn overs, and thus allows teams that are behind a chance, the very nature of the game solves the problem the shot clock was intended to solve better than the shot clock could or does solve the problem.
And the 3 point line will lead to the death of basketball, it's been a primary source of the lack of fundamental skills that used to make the game a beauty to behold. Thanks to the 3 point line nobody knows how to pass the ball in traffic anymore, nobody knows how to work in deep anymore, and nobody really knows how to shoot the damn ball anymore. When none of the athletes have the fundamental skills to actually play a game anymore that game isn't long for the world, which can be seen in the NBA's dropping ratings.
Relax. Whether or not you give a damn is irrelevant. Popularity equals attendance and TV revenue. That's the bottom line in marketing, whether it's sports or anything else. Businessmen who start professional sports leagues are not concerned with the finer points of the game. They are concerned about mass appeal. That is what determines whether or not a sport or a league is viable.
By the way, I don't care whether or not they put a shot clock in hockey. I'm not a hockey fan. I have a general understanding of the rules, and it's mildly entertaining for a few minutes to me. As for your comments on the finer points of the game, I'll take your word for it, because I really don't follow the sport that closely. My original comments about a shot clock were mentioned only for basketball, with which I am more familiar. As for basketball, I'm not really concerned about the NBA, because I don't watch it. But the bottom line is that college basketball would not be as big as it is today if not for the shot clock and the three point shot. It changed the game from a boring endeavor to hold the ball as long as you could to a run and gun exciting sport. By the way, the NBA can thank the hooligans that pass for players for their dropping ratings. That is the only reason I don't watch it anymore. There are many more entertaining sports on TV. Arena football is more fun to watch than the NBA. Baseball is more entertaining, football is better, and NASCAR has the most accessible athletes, plus exciting action.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.