The NHL season isn’t officially started until we have our first “Hot Topic” regarding the rules in hockey and what we can do to “fix the game”. Hockey fans and media alike enjoy nothing more than to talk endlessly about the state of the game and offer our amateur opinions on what the league needs to do to address the current problems that are plaguing the game we love.
This year it is the issue of body checks to the head, or “headshots” if you will, that has all the buzz. Mike Richards hit on David Booth got the ball rolling and there have been other instances to further add fuel to the fire.
The issue I’d like to address though is that for every change to the rules that is implemented, there’s a trickle down effect that wasn’t foreseen when the rule change was first proposed.
For example, the “Hot Topic” issue pre-lockout was the neutral zone trap and all the interference that went with it. The game was too slow in many opinions and too “fix” the game the NHL should penalize all obstruction to open things up. Furthermore, goalies (namely Martin Brodeur of the trap happy New Jersey Devils) were too free to play the puck and in conjunction with the trap, teams couldn’t establish a fore check and scoring was suffering league-wide as a result.
As a reaction to all of the discontent, the NHL got tough on obstruction, calling all stick infractions that impededed opposing players progress into the attacking zone, and opened up the game for the skilled players to shine. In addition, they added a trapezoidal space behind the net for goalies to stop the dump around the boards, but prevent them from playing the soft dump-in from the corner, further opening up the scoring chances and hindering the effectiveness of the trap even more.
Problem solved, right?
Well, the game has opened up post lockout and the trap is more or less neutralized, but with every action there is an equal reaction. The spin off of all the rule changes mentioned above is players racing in, un-obstructed, to hit the defenseman at full speed. The objective of allowing the game to open up, get faster, has surely been achieved but the consequence of this change is that players are hitting each other at much higher speeds, resulting in too many injuries.
The problem with making changes to any game is that humans will always adapt and find a way to use the new environment to their advantage. It’s impossible to say whether any new rules or discipline will have the desired effect regarding headshots, but you can say with certainty that any changes the NHL does make will have some unforseen downsides.
It’s my opinion that the only way to stop the problems is to stop trying to stop the problems and let the game evolve naturally. Give the players a few years to work out the situation and come to the conclusion that with all the running around and killing each other, they’re doing some serious damage to their financial well being, and maybe as a group they’ll figure out that it’s in the collectives best interest to play with a bit of respect for one another.