> From: "Stephen St.Pierre" <[log in to unmask]>
>
> >As much as people might not like to admit it, he's probably right.  I've
> > been saying this for weeks and I'm kinda shocked that people are
actually
> >surprised at the high-level of play.  The exciting play is FAR more
> >attributable to the players and the style of play (unlike Nagano, there
are
> >FAR fewer teams playing the extreme defensive styles that we see in the
> >NHL.....and other European leagues), than the red line or wider ice.
>
> Yeah, your right, the exciting games we saw in the preliminary round with
> such all star laden teams as France and Austria had nothing to do with no
> red line and wider rinks, It was the tremendous skill of the players.. ;)

Only some of the games in the prelims were exciting.  The Germany games were
terribly boring, mainly because of the style they played.  The games that
Latvia played were generally exciting, mostly because they played a style
that lends itself to being exciting.....fast tempo with shaky defense.

I don't disagree that it helps, but I do disagree that it's the main reason.
I think you'd get the same "exciting" play if you dropped 20 teams from the
NHL and redrafted....without a bigger ice surface and no changes to the
2-line pass.

Erik Johnson