I Blame Society...And Goalie Pads!

One of the reasons spewed out ad infinitum as to why scoring is down is the size of the goalie equipment. Yet somehow these same Michelin Men netminders gave up 22 goals in 65 minutes of hockey in the All-Star Game.



Duck and cover

Sure this game is known for its lack of defence but shouldn't the larger netminders anyway at best up the scoring no more than a few goals over the 5+ average a regular season game sees?

Maybe the real reason scoring is down is more down to the style of play in the NHL. Although the neutral zone trap and its cousin, the left-wing lock, are still with us, they are not as much a factor as during the Dead Puck Era.

Given no player was really attempting to block shots in the All-Star Game and there has been an idea floated about to ban shot blocking, maybe that is the route towards more chances on net at least. Because this is what we are ultimately talking about. It's not the dearth of scoring but the non-action of so many meaningless regular season games.

Sure the play in 2008-09 is far superior than in the 1990s but it's a far cry from the Air Hockey '80s let alone the '70s when hockey probably struck the perfect balance between offence and defence (albeit bench clearing brawls sometimes disrupted all that...so the obvious solution must be to bring back the bench clearing. "Bettman, you're out! Schultz, you're the new commish!").

Shot blocking is a skill but it has gotten completely out of whack. It seems more players work on shot blocking as well as filling lanes and having "active" sticks than on traditional skills like, oh, skating, shooting and passing.

Something has to give. I'm all for 4-on-4 hockey for the entire 60 minutes. After all hockey started out as a 6-on-6 game then evolved into the current 5-on-5 game.

Be it the size of the goalie pads or the bigger and stronger players out there, it's about creating space to create goal scoring chances. I'm not really saying anything new here, but the All-Star Shinny proved it's not the players' fault for a lack of scoring. It's the way the game is coached now. For that it takes a different mindset and an emphasis on creativity rather than on figuring out ways to suck the life out of the opposition. Yes, I am talking to you Jacques Lemaire, Ken Hitchcock, Jacques Martin and your ilk.

Junior Hockey's Millionaires

The Vancouver Giants keep topping themselves. Not only are they mindboggling hot from the start of yet another WHL season, they came out in sartorial splendour wearing 1915 Stanley Cup champion Vancouver Millionaires (next thing you'll tell me is that Cyclone Taylor's is not just another sporting goods store?) uniforms Friday vs. the Kamloops Blazers. The pic to the left does not do the jerseys justice as the deep maroon is a standout, and it's surprising no NHL team has tried this in the modern era. Maybe we can get fashion insider Sean Avery to work on that.

The Vancouver Millionaires Night was another of Giants' owner Ron Toigo's brilliant promotional ideas to honor our city's hockey past. The pre-game cermony saw five ex-NHLers all of whom had won Stanley Cups trotted out accompanied by the G-women cheerleaders with young kids traling the hockey greats carrying replica mini-Stanley Cups. Dave "the Hammer" Schultz in his classic #8 Flyers pumpkin orange jersey walked out first. He was followed by Gerry Cheevers, Johnny Bower and Steve Shutt. So, Shutt with five kids carrying five Stanley Cups was impressive but then out strolls Yvan "the Roadrunner" Cournoyer and ten kids. You do the math but plenty of the uneduacted in the 12,000+ crowd could be heard to gasp. Yep, young 'uns, back in the day before the Interwebs, the Habs won Cup after Cup after Cup.

The game itself was terrific as the G-men overcame a sluggish first period where they fell behind 3-1 to trump the Blazers 6-4. All this without the WHL's leading scorer, Evander Kane, who missed his second game in a row due to injury.

Oh, yeah, the six-goal barrier was hit so everyone exiting the Pacific Coliseum got a coupon for a free appetizer at White Spot. They weren't giving those out in 1915 at the old Denman Arena, I tell you.