Lights, Camera, Action! Anyone watching this opening week of NHL play will have seen some of the best hockey played in almost 15 years. I’d go a step further and say it’s some of the highest quality sports action currently anywhere on the globe. Brendan Shanahan of the Detroit Red Wings, who helped reshape the rules during the lockout, commented, ‘..in years past, even I didn’t enjoy watching hockey on TV.’ With the new rules in play, he notes, ‘There are so many lead changes, a fan can’t leave any game early. Teams are never out of the game.’ The regular season play may not have the same drama as the Astros 18 inning playoff win over the Braves, but the enforcement of the new rules has transformed the fastest game in the world BACK into the showpiece that it always was capable of being. It took the lockout to finally get it fixed. Maybe David Stern and the NBA should take note.
Speed Kills! The frenetic pace of the new game is incredible. Not allowing defenders to impede the offensive players and eliminating the red line also keeps the game flowing for longer periods between whistles. As you watch the game, it is clear that players will require a much higher level of aerobic fitness to play well – you can almost see some of the players getting winded after a good minute on the ice (Keith Tachuk won’t ever come to camp overweight again!). The teams that have the most fit players with speed and puck handling skills will dominate.
The days of selecting players predominantly for their size and strength are gone. One sidenote: because players are moving faster, watch out for many more big hits by good old fashioned bodychecks!
Journeymen (read as Mediocre) Hockey Players Take Note! Before the league changed the rules and seriously enforced the ‘no impeding’
policy, there were a lot of players that earned their paycheck by clutching or grabbing, and even mugging players in front of the net. At times, fringe players like Darcy Tucker or Derian Hatcher were lauded for their defensive play. Now they are in danger of becoming extinct.
The new NHL will start to point out the tremendous gap between the truly skilled players and the ones that just don’t measure up. I still see players trying old habits of hooking from behind, and they are frustrated when they are sent to the penalty box. Face it – If another player gets by or around you, you’ve been beat fair and square. There is no place in hockey for allowing mediocre players to bring the highest skilled players down to their level. As Kris Draper, teammate to Shanahan says, ‘To be able to go out there and make plays, that’s how the game should be played.’
Off the ice. Ok it’s not hockey, but I couldn’t resist! The Atlanta Braves are out of the running again. That makes 14 consecutive years that they have won their Division and only once have they won the World Series. It’s time they got rid of Manager Bobby Cox. Cox was a loser when he was in Toronto with the Blue Jays when they had great talent. Toronto finally won 2 World Series after they got rid of him. Bobby wouldn’t have lasted a New York minute under George Steinbrenner.
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