Is The Game Opening Up?

My old friend Joe Tasca dashed off some thoughts about the quality of play he's been seeing in the preseason:

I went to the Springfield/Hartford AHL pre-season game up in Massachusetts on Sunday. I also checked out part of Saturday's Boston/Rangers game on NESN.

I gotta say that both games were extremely entertaining. There were a truckload of scoring chances in both games and there was so much unimpeded skating in the offensive zone, I thought I was actually watching a game of shinny.

Unfortunately, I also felt like I was watching a tea party at times. I can count the number of hits I saw in both games on ONE hand. I mean, there was no physicality at ALL in either game. It was actually quite stunning.

I suppose I'm willing to trade physicality for excitement, but I wonder if I'll be whistling the same tune come December when I forget what a body check looks like.

Perception is one thing, but what about actual data? Last Friday, Tom Benjamin did some number crunching, and gave a mixed review to the results:

Are goals up?

Yes, but not by much. In the 20 games, teams averaged 5.65 goals, about half a goal more than 2003-04. Time will tell whether this is a real increase or whether it reflects the normal higher scoring preseason...

So far it isn't good news for Gary Bettman. The data implies that the more things change, the more things will stay the same. Even if the crackdown sticks goals will rise only marginally.

There's more, and like usual it's pretty informative. However, as Tom himself has suggested in the past, what the NHL needs more of is "scoring chances" not just more scoring -- something that Joe's admittedly anecdotal observations seem to confirm.

In any case, the data isn't definitive (and to be fair to Tom, he doesn't claim it is), and I think it's safe to say that we won't know whether or not the changes have been an unqualified success till at least the middle of the 2006-07 season. And in between this season and the next, I'm sure we're going to see some other minor tweaks, something that will probably become a regular feature of every NHL offseason for the rest of our lives.

The bottom line: Whatever you think of the changes, the impact will take some time to settle in. I don't care how disciplined a defenseman might be, any player who has to fight a lifetime's worth of conditioning when it comes to icing the puck can't just turn that impulse off overnight.

So be patient. It's not like we have a choice anyway.

Eric 12:17 PM

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