I believe the average score is higher than it was 10, 20, or 30 years ago. It's been a low scoring game for as long as I've been a fan, yet the average scoring is higher now than ever.
Its an exciting game, physical, tough, highly skilled athletes playing at inconceivable speeds on a hard surface. Something for everyone, plus it happens to be the most exciting sport to watch live, at the arena.
Btw, the Red Wings are amazing, and have been for over 15 years: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/detroit-red-wings-hit-21-straight-home-wins-034152724.html;_ylt=AtbJXwgn5YjlyuD5VjBPvQ17vLYF
I find women’s curling more entertaining.
My Dad told me about a game he went to back at the old Olympia against the Canadiens.....it was scoreless until the fifth overtime, when finally Rocket Richard ended it.
As a Carolina Hurricanes’ season tix holder, I too love hockey. I do believe the NHL improved the game a few years ago when they loosened up the offside rule by widening the blue line and only calling offsides when it impacts the offensive flow of the game. Big improvement.
The international game, with wider rinks, does not suffer from the congestion the NHL game does, because the NHL game is made for rinks that can be put in multi use basketball arena’s which shrinks the ice by definition.
One key difference in hockey and soccer is the the offsides rule in soccer is a penalty for actually beating a person deep. You get penalized for doing what you should do. The offsides in hockey is for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and has nothing to do with the position of the other team’s players. That’s a huge difference for rules that have the same name and somewhat of the same intent.
As for its popularity: if it was a tad more high scoring - and more games were televised in hi def so you can follow the puck - it would be more popular than it is now.
That's not exactly correct. Here's a great link for you:
NHL Scoring Average (Historical)
You can probably discard all of the data before the 1940s because the rules were very different back then (hence the low scoring totals in the late 1920s and through the 1930s). The NHL spent many years tinkering with the rules about forward passing and passing within the zones and across the two blue lines, and the current configuration of the ice wasn't firmly established until the center red line was adopted in the mid-1940s.
The height of the NHL's offensive numbers occurred from the late 1970s through the 1980s. I attribute this to three major factors: (1) the emergence of offensive-minded defensemen as a standard element of an NHL roster after Bobby Orr made his mark on the game; (2) the optimal mix of player talent vs. teams in the NHL (I've long said that an ideal NHL with sufficient talented players to fill the rosters would be somewhere between 16 and 24 teams); and (3) the success of Edmonton's free-wheeling style of play during their dynasty.
In my opinion, scoring has declined since the 1980s for three main reasons: (1) the dilution of talent in an NHL with 30+ teams; (2) the emergence and refinement of goaltending (techniques, coaching, etc.); and (3) the dramatic increase in the size of players in recent decades, which has effectively shrunk the ice and made the game more "confined."