Unthinkable
08-23-2005, 06:20 PM
http://www.msgnetwork.com/content_news.jsp?articleID=v0000msgn20050822T22185 1413&newsgroup=ap.sportsml.columnist.article&sports=ice-hockey&team=Devils&league=nhl
NO RED DOESN'T MEAN IT'S ALL ROSES
I'm excited the NHL is taking out the red line. Mainly because I don't know what's going to happen, and anyone who says he does ... doesn't. You do not know how coaches are going to try and defend what appears to be a wide open game. It's great to be more wide open from the boards at one end up to center ice, but will it result in actually more 2-on-1s, 3-on-2s, breakaways, high quality scoring chances? All I know is that in the Czech Republic, they put the red line back in because it didn't work and it actually has slowed the game down. That being said, our rink is narrower, we play a different game so that doesn't necessarily mean that's going to happen here. I'm excited, but with a lot of reservation and hope that it turns out to be as revolutionary as we think. But only time will tell.
I was really disappointed with the inclusion of the shootout. I wanted to go to a 4-on-4, then 3-on-3 overtime. You wouldn't have to go to a shootout because someone would have scored a goal. You would still have had team play, you would have still had even three players working as a team to try to beat the goalie, and I think that's always more exciting than one guy going in all alone on the goalie. It's exciting at first, but for me, that can lose some luster.
I don't think goalies' play of the puck is going to change as much as people say. Remember, if the puck is shot in hard on a cross-court dump and it comes in front of the goal line, Martin Brodeur can step out and whistle that down the ice just like he's always done. If they throw it all the way behind, he can still go in that new trapezoid area behind the net and still have enough room to at least step to one side or the other and be able to play it.
The only thing that's going to make a difference is if you can make a soft dump into a corner where it slows down behind the goal line in that area. The goalie couldn't go and get those, but a lot of times, he wouldn't go and get those anyway because they're dangerous to go after.
NO RED DOESN'T MEAN IT'S ALL ROSES
I'm excited the NHL is taking out the red line. Mainly because I don't know what's going to happen, and anyone who says he does ... doesn't. You do not know how coaches are going to try and defend what appears to be a wide open game. It's great to be more wide open from the boards at one end up to center ice, but will it result in actually more 2-on-1s, 3-on-2s, breakaways, high quality scoring chances? All I know is that in the Czech Republic, they put the red line back in because it didn't work and it actually has slowed the game down. That being said, our rink is narrower, we play a different game so that doesn't necessarily mean that's going to happen here. I'm excited, but with a lot of reservation and hope that it turns out to be as revolutionary as we think. But only time will tell.
I was really disappointed with the inclusion of the shootout. I wanted to go to a 4-on-4, then 3-on-3 overtime. You wouldn't have to go to a shootout because someone would have scored a goal. You would still have had team play, you would have still had even three players working as a team to try to beat the goalie, and I think that's always more exciting than one guy going in all alone on the goalie. It's exciting at first, but for me, that can lose some luster.
I don't think goalies' play of the puck is going to change as much as people say. Remember, if the puck is shot in hard on a cross-court dump and it comes in front of the goal line, Martin Brodeur can step out and whistle that down the ice just like he's always done. If they throw it all the way behind, he can still go in that new trapezoid area behind the net and still have enough room to at least step to one side or the other and be able to play it.
The only thing that's going to make a difference is if you can make a soft dump into a corner where it slows down behind the goal line in that area. The goalie couldn't go and get those, but a lot of times, he wouldn't go and get those anyway because they're dangerous to go after.