By Brian Van Vliet /
I often find myself shaking my head in disbelief at some of the things that go on in hockey at both the minor league and professional levels. We let 10 year old figure skaters do triple salchows (pronounced sow cow) on the ice without helmets on and then force grown men who coach hockey to wear helmets at all times. Go figure. In this article, I have decided to pick on the NHL. So here is my top 10 list of things that need to change in professional hockey.
10. The camera angles available for reviewing a disputed goal are a joke. Referees stop the game for 10 minutes, get on the phone with the brain trust in Toronto who review the play and then proceed to make the wrong call because there was not enough evidence to overturn the original bad call. Take a lesson from the National Football League and install some proper cameras to get it right.
9. Wayne Gretzky coaching the Coyotes – Wayne was a hero to many as a player. As a coach, he is abysmal. Any other coach would have been fired by now. His ego is standing in the way of reality. Please Wayne, for the sake of Canadian hockey fans, step down and ride off into the sunset.
8. Touch icing – Hockey Night in Canada host Don Cherry has been yelling for years that too many injuries occur because players get run into the boards going back for the puck to get an icing call. Don is right. Whistle it dead when the puck crosses the line.
7. Third jerseys – Boston, Nashville and Dallas. Enough said.
6. Two referee system – The two-ref system is a failure. You still see numerous calls made by the ref furthest from the play. The extra body just gets in the way on an already crammed surface.
5. Top team in division gets placed in top three of Conference – Just flat out dumb. Currently Philadelphia sits in third with 51 points ahead of fourth place Montreal who have 52. Line them up one through eight based on points.
4. Three-point games – It used to mean something to get 100 points in a season. Now a team can accumulate numerous points by losing in overtime. Two points for a win and no points for a loss. Plain and simple.
3. No-trade contracts – They have ruined the game. With the salary cap and the no trade, it is almost impossible for a GM to do his job. Let the GM’s have the power to trade to make their clubs better.
2. Last place team gets first pick in draft – Rewarding failure makes no sense. Teams that finish middle of the pack cannot get better. Teams like Pittsburgh, Ottawa, Quebec (before they became the Avs) and most recently Chicago have mastered the art of finishing last and astounding us all with their miraculous improvement. Give the last five place playoff teams the first five picks. Imagine how hard teams would fight for those spots as opposed to the current system that sees teams tank it from Christmas on. The league’s bottom feeders can have picks 6 through ten.
1. Perception of the game – While the NFL, NBA and major league baseball brag about how great their leagues are, the NHL constantly talks publicly about what is wrong with the game. How are people supposed to take the NHL seriously when all the talk is negative? Simply make the changes this armchair sports fan has suggested and never talk about what is wrong with the game again.
Agree or disagree, I’m off the goalpost.
Brian can be contacted at [email protected] and www.offthegoalpost.com |