Future of Hockey

Much debate has gone into hockey’s future. What should NHL hockey look like going forward. The athletes  are faster, stronger, and more fit. The rink is the same size. Concussions are on the rise.  The debate regarding the type of game – balance between physical play and skill play. All of this is fodder for the many hockey fans. I have been a fan all of my life. It is a flow sport that has a physicality that is unlike any other sport. I am not a hockey expert, nor do I care to engage in many of the debate mentioned. However, if I could play Commissioner for a day, I would change one rule regarding body checking.

Hockey is the only sport that allows direct contact to an opponent who does not have the puck. I know that there are rules to prevent obstruction, that is not the contact that I am referring to. How many times do you watch a player in hockey make a pass and then prepare himself for a second or two and then get hit. The old “finish your check” theory. This mentality makes very little sense within the context of the sport. I would go further to say that it is hurting the sport of hockey.

I am all for violent contact to dislodge a player from a puck. It usually means that an opponent has removed the space from the offensive player and used a hit to take possession of the puck. What I think kills the game of hockey is the contact that is allowed once a player releases possession of the puck. It allows less talented and slower players to have too great a role in the game. Especially during the playoffs. NHL hockey playoffs has become more about surviving injuries than celebrating the skill of the players. It is a bizarre component of the game. Just imagine a football quarterback making a pass and then worry about the late hits that come after the pass. Or a soccer player who make a pass and then prepares himself for a slide tack afterwards. In the other sports this is scene a serious foul. Not in hockey.

In fact, after watching how Boston bullied their way to the finals. NHL teams are loading up on aggressive hitters who are not fast enough to get to players with the puck but are allowed to finish checks on players that are no longer involved in the game.

Want to remove head shots, want to protect your elite players, want the game filled with talented players, then change your game. Make the adjustments that football and soccer have to protect the skill in the game.

If a hockey player hits another player when that player does not have possession of the puck then it should be a penalty. Simple as that. The game would change for the better. I watch football and soccer and celebrate how their sports are better today then they were in the past. Hockey needs to change.