Anybody who's heard me ridicule the DH and
artificial turf knows that I'm a stalwart Sports
Conservative, but I think Brian Morris' innovative
ideas deserve a fair hearing. As applied to both
pro and college.
 
1. Kill the red line.
 
Works well in college, I'd vote to kill it in the NHL
as well. Don't really understand why it hasn't
been done, actually. Dave Schultz suggested
doing it in his "watch what I say, not what I do"
book back in 1975! History question: when was
the red line eliminated for college?
 
2.  Shorten periods.
 
First thought is: asterisks everywhere! But as
much as I love statistics (get your trial issue of
The Big Red What? today...), continuity of
records isn't a valid reason to oppose a rule
change. 20 minute periods are obviously pretty
arbitrary (that they add up to an hour makes
some sort of harmonic sense, I guess). Convince
me that changing the length of the periods does
anything and I could go for it.
 
3.  Shorten intermissions, or eliminate one
intermission (play in halves).
 
I suppose you could shorten intermissions if you
shortened period length, though we're talking one
or two minutes, here. I'd think that one of the
reasons to shorten periods is to allow the athletes
to push harder (more "quality time") - and cutting
down the intermission defeats this logic.
 
As far as halves go, on the face of it, I hate the
idea. After further review, I still hate the idea. I
also disagree with the comment about memorable
second periods. The three periods give a hockey
game a kind of rhythym and balance that I do not
find in other sports. The two intermissions allow
the coach more time to discuss strategy with the
players. Perhaps at this point my reason gives
way to traditionalism, but I just don't see it.
 
---
 
I think that one non-radical way to improve the
game and increase interest would be to broaden
the conditions under which a penalty shot is
granted. Let's say that a shot was awarded for
any penalty which "occured during a scoring
chance". I don't want to debase the game with 3
or 4 per period, but what if on average there were
between 1 and 2 shots in a game? Also, a
defenseman would think twice before
cross-checking the puck carrier into the crossbar,
when he had a 50%, rather than a 20%, chance of
costing his team a goal.
 
All the things considered, it ain't broke. I'm too
busy enjoying the game as it exists to worry about
livening it up for the short attention span set. I
also don't believe that the game *needs* bells and
whistles to sell widely. Look at soccer. LOTS of
people all over the world love it, and it's about as
action packed as a somnabulent Noh actor picking
hair balls off my carpet as filmed by Andy
Warhol.
 
 
Greg
Boston
Let's Go Red!