What happened to the NHL???

[iceman2004]

Hardly any passion or intensity anymore. Hits are few and far between and even the odd scraps are down. LOL the leafs dont even have a fighting major yet and Domi and Belak have played each game.

 

[the_big_E]

perhaps your listenting to Don Cherry too much

 

[moneytalks]

Hardly any passion or intensity anymore. Hits are few and far between and even the odd scraps are down. LOL the leafs dont even have a fighting major yet and Domi and Belak have played each game.

Watch UFC or HBO Boxing After Dark if that's what you're looking for.

 

[A-ROD]

Hardly any passion or intensity anymore. Hits are few and far between and even the odd scraps are down. LOL the leafs dont even have a fighting major yet and Domi and Belak have played each game.

This is what the NHL wants.. and ya know what, overall I think it's a much better game to watch. You can watch fights on HBO I would rather watch a good hockey player pulling Bobby Orr type moves as he skates thru the whole team my 2.3 cents worth

 

[21pro]

Hardly any passion or intensity anymore. Hits are few and far between

haven't seen Dion Phaneuf play yet? or what about Atlanta's Garnet Exelby?

i've seen both play. when i saw calgary, dion had 18 hits. and when i say atlanta play montreal, exelby had over 20 hits according to nhl network.

for the record, scott stevens led the nhl post season in hits and averaged 3.8 hits per game over his entire 21 year career.

 

[champ]

I think it is important to keep things in perspective.

At this time any other season we would have much lower expectations for the quality and pace of the games.

Early season hockey has always been somewhat slow and dull.

I believe it is because we missed a full season and and are much more attuned to the game than usual for this time of year.

I don't think we can criticize the lack of fighting though. Does anyone complain about the lack of fighting during the playoffs?

 

[benn]

I like the game more, it's a lot faster compare to previous years....Should there be hitting of course there should be as long as it's with in the flow of the game

 

[iceman2004]

Poor Belak, maybe it was better he didnt get into a scrap this year.

 

[iceman2004]

I love the way the game has changed back to the fast paced high scoring games of the late 80's and early 90's. It was really a shame looking back now to the way the game changed to the trap and all the holding and hooking that was going on the last almost 10 years.

80's and early 90's was the best time for hockey. Fast paced and intense hockey. Now it may be alittle faster but theres too many penalties being called and the physical battles are tamer.

 

[shack]

80's and early 90's was the best time for hockey.

Maybe qualify that by saying "for people who didn't get to watch hockey in the 70's and especially 60's". Anyone old enough to have seen original 6 or even up to 14 teams will tell you it was waaay better than 80's onward.

 

[21pro]

scotty bowman who coached in the '70s said that the gretzky era ('80s) was the nhl's golden age of hockey- and he's a well respected opinion in my book anyday, he's been watching hockey for quite some time.

i wish they'd bring back the hip check, though.. every time i've seen it succesfully used this season, it was called as a penalty. i also think, that they should allow hits when the checker lines up the player, the player plays the puck, and then gets hit. i don't like how it's a penalty as soon as someone dishes off the puck... but, maybe i could learn to like it... i've always been coaching players to follow through on their hits. it's an adjustment. now, you can theoretically scare people off of the puck just by acting like you're going to hit them, causing them to quickly throw the puck away...