Playoff hockey is something that, when done properly, is arguably the most exciting of all postseason play. football is one-and-done, and in the modern NFL anyone can win at anytime. basketball is too frenetic, and apparently, too thuggish, as shown by the spurs and other teams that bog around. baseball has history and frustration locked up, when teams can suddenly get hot at the end of the season and coast through the playoffs, leaving a less-than-deserving team atop the heap (cardinals...i'm looking at you). hockey, or rather, pre-Dead Puck hockey, was the best of the best.
regrettably, it seems that the NHL has rescinded its claims of a new era with officials dropping a dook all over the ice. clutching, grabbing, hooking...essentially everything the bloody new jersey devils graced the NHL with in '95 en route to a ill-deserved stanley cup, are back with a vengeance. scoring, the thing that has been bringing fans back to the sport, has plummeted, no thanks to refs who just turn a blind eye to brutish behavior (chris pronger body slam - no penalty during the game, suspension upon further review).
"experts" like scott burnside of espn says for fans to stop whining about the lack of scoring and "enjoy playoff hockey." i have been an avid fan of the NHL since 1993, and i enjoy scoring. i also enjoy goalies playing at the top of their games, and being peppered with shots can spur a goalie into the performance of a lifetime. remember how nicholai khabibulin burst onto the scene with the winnepeg jets and behaved like a hoover against the red wings in '95? that game sticks out much more than anything the last five years have given us.
look, scoring makes the nhl beautiful: it emphasizes the skating and the stickhandling, and it can really get a game chippy and raring for a Scrum (the best term available for a hockey fight).
and on an unrelated note, albert pujols might be the worst player in professional baseball history. what's up with his hitting? he's swinging with all the gusto of a dead fish. and honestly, what's up with baseball in general? is the steroid scare altering the way the game is played?
and speaking of steroids (segue!), last night i watched "Rookie of the Year" last night with some buddies, and the barry bonds (pirates, 1993) cameo caught us all off guard. THE DUDE HAS GAINED AT LEAST 100 POUNDS! THIS IS NOT NATURAL! WHY MUST MLB FURTHER MY CONSPIRACY THEORIES BY TURNING A BLIND EYE TO THIS ONE EXAMPLE OF BLATANT CHEATING!?
i gotta stop now, i almost had a convulsion.
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Not to mention the ridiculous phantom 3rd point that appears when a game goes to OT.
I'm all for the shootout - I think having as many games as we used to end in ties was ridiculous, but why does the losing team get a point simply because they lost in OT? If you want to give a team a point for an OT loss, then make a regulation win worth three points. It's easy to see why some fans feel robbed when what determines a team getting into the playoffs is the largely a fewer number of OT losses. *cough* Colorado Avs *cough*
In the case of the Avs, the biggest difference between Calgary's record and the Avs, was that Calgary had more OT losses, while the Avs had more reg. losses. To be fair - if the Avs had won one just one more game in the regular season, we wouldn't even be mentioning this , and the Avs would have gone to the playoffs (and probably been promtly elminated), but I dare say that the Avs were the most exciting team to watch in the last 3 weeks of the regular season. This is especially disheartening when the Avs had a better record than teams in the East who won their division. Now, at the end of the day, the Avs have only themselves to blame, really, but nonetheless......
Re: NHL rule changes: Yeah... many of the rule changes were good - had did help move the game along. The two-line pass change was great. But the increased calling of hooking, obstruction, and interference has made good defensive play something of a novelty.
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