Rebels have stormed the NHL walls and have taken control of the game. Some of the rebel leaders are feeling pretty good about how the offensive insurrection has gone so far.
As much as Shanahan would like to turn back the clock and not have had a lockout and a lost season, he says, "As crazy as this sounds, having the hockey people off for a year gave us time to step back and re-examine the game. ... And this may have been the best thing to happen for our game and our fans."So all you supporters of the revolution (you know who you are) give me a big old..... REBEL YELL !!!
And give me... more.
Goals Way Up................ MORE ...
A total of 255 goals, an average of 6.4 per game, have been scored in 40 games. The figure represents a 41% increase over the average of 4.5 goals scored in the first 40 games of the 2003-04 season.
The people who should know can sense the shift, see it, feel it. "I felt it in the second and third periods (Saturday) night," said Senators centre Jason Spezza. "It opened up ... it was ... fun."................. MORE!!!
The NHL and fun have not often been mentioned in the same sentence for quite some time.
About as close as you got was when the NHL put the "fun" in dysfunctional over the last 16 months or so.
But take a look around now.
Man, whoever drew this up on the chalkboard deserves a raise.However not everyone has been happy though and a few feel they've been targeted by the insurgents.
Damned if it doesn't all seem to be working, though.
There have been waves of chances in the games I've seen this season.
Kolzig stopped short of saying the league has singled out goalies, but said he wants referees to crackdown on goalie interference with the same vigor as abolishing the game of obstruction.All I can say is... Viva la Revolucion!!!
"I just wish they'd watch out for goaltenders a little more," he said. "It's tough enough trying to stop the puck without having guys falling on you and saying it was accidental.
"With the [defensive] systems teams played up until this year, goal scoring was down and save percentage was up. They want to get it back to old style hockey, the 7-6 and 6-5 games. By taking some of the goalies' advantages away they've achieved that. The easiest way to increase goal scoring is to target the goaltender."
RECAPS from Monday's games 10-10-05.
GOAL SCORING PER GAME:
1986-87 - 7.4
2003-04 - 5.1
10/10/5 - 6.6
2 comments:
One thing that does kind of worry me is that scoring is up with a wave of players heading to the penalty box.
In 03-04 the percentage of goals scored on the power play was 27%. So far this season it's around 37%. Once the players figure out the rules that percentage will drop.
Still, I'm sure it will be an improvement over the 03-04 product.
Yeah, I agree Limey, there is that danger once the players catch on to the way the refs are calling things. I think however because the players are still in the very early stages of learning how to play with and exploit the new rules that as they continue to work the rust off of the long layoff and become more comfortable and knowledgable with the new NHL game that evolutionary process and resulting goal scoring increase will offset the decrease in PP goals. At least that's what I'm hoping.
We shall see.
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