Like others on this list, I too would take my chances that the NHL would be
a bit more exciting with the elimination of the red line, except for icing.
Today's NHL is populated with too many defensemen who are unable to move the
puck out of their own zone and are employed solely because they can defend a
40 foot area from the blue line to the goal line.

A couple of years ago I was speaking to a former UNH defenseman who at the
time was playing in the AHL.  He told me that, while of course the skill
level of the forwards was higher in the pros, his job was made much easier
because the territory he had to defend was smaller.  I only have to point to
my favorite whipping boy, the Bruins' Hal Gill, to make my point.  Gill
played college hockey at Providence and was one in a long line of immobile
hulks that the Friars loved to recruit.  An average player at best.  Yet now
he is an established veteran, is considered one of the better defensemen on
the Bruins and is given loads of credit by Jaramir Jagr as the toughest
d-man he plays against.  Why is this so?  Did Big Hal all of sudden find
jets that he didn't have before?  I don't think so.  I watch him enough to
know that his big plus is an ability to bang guys along the boards.
However, whenever he has to move his feet, especially in scrums behind the
net, the old Hal reappears.

The size of the rink has not changed since the NHL began in the '20's.  Yet
the players are not only faster and more skilled but, IMO, have gotten too
big for the rink's dimensions.  Since I think most of us agree that the NHL
will not be enlarging the ice surface in any of the arenas, the next best
thing is to amend the rules to create the possibility of more wide open
hockey.  If coaches want to employ the trap, man four guys on the blue line,
so be it.  But at least it gives fans a chance to see a better brand of
hockey than they are seeing now.

I'm going on too long here but the bottom line is that hockey's attraction,
or at least it should be, is the combination of speed and skill that can
produce some exciting play.  What we have in the NHL now is NOT exciting.
Period.

Greg Ambrose