6 ms·

To be honest, the less the referees are involved, the better. There's a much simpler answer: increase the size of the net. Hockey sticks are pretty incredible

by m8s 6y ago

To be honest, the less the referees are involved, the better. There's a much simpler answer: increase the size of the net. Hockey sticks are pretty incredible these days, and the torque generated from flexing the stick is pretty unbelievable. Playing in net in hockey is mostly about setting up at the right angles and blocking the highest percentage of the net that you can, combined with athleticism and instinct. But a bigger goal would lead to more goals, if that's the end goal for the NHL.

keiferski 6y ago
I don’t think the goal is necessarily to have more goals, but to reduce the pile up of players around the net. Maybe it’s my goalie experience speaking, but the highlight of hockey to me was always the direct confrontation between a shooter and the goalie. The more chaotic the goals, the less interesting the sport is.
- remarkEon 6y ago
  Inclined to agree. The goals I remember from watching hockey in my youth are the really sexy ones. A risky pass and a breakaway, or some slick skating at the blue line to put some defenders off balance. Also, “just make the goal bigger” sounds a lot like “change the rules so more runs are scored” in baseball. You lose an element of the game you can’t get back when you do that. Maybe that’s a little “old man yells at cloud” but whatever.
- JohnBooty 6y ago
  I think like the article says, the way you reduce the pileup around the goalie is to make it possible to score from places other than the pileup around the goalie. Just as the viability of 3-point shooters opened up the floor in the NBA, making it viable to score from the blue line in the NHL would open the ice as well. When I was a kid in the 80s players would score from the blue line all of the time. They were still relatively low percentage shots but a guy could absolutely score with a slapper from the blue line. Enough that you had to respect the threat. Not unheard of for a d-man to score 20 or 30 in a year. As a fan that was fun too! Not as fun as a magical "sexy" Gretzky goal. But you could hear the anticipation in the building when the puck went back to some guy who had a cannon from the blue line. Al Iafrate, etc. Today, if a defensemen actually scored from the blue line, the team would probably immediately release the goalie and fire the goaltending coach lol. Only reason to shoot from long range is so you can get the puck into the scrum in the slot and hope some something happens from there.
  - miskin 6y ago
    Goals from blue line are not that uncommon even in NHL [1]. Also, hockey is played on many different levels than NHL and trust me, if I got one USD for each goal I got from blue line, I'm doing just fine :) [1] https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/video/chara-levels-slapshot-blue-line-capitals-goal-bruins/ https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/video/chara-levels-slapshot-blu...
miskin 6y ago
I'm a hockey goalie, too. I think we have to think about non-NHL goalies too. Not every adult is 2m high and if we make net size bigger we will effectively make the game unplayable for "average" goalies. When a shooter shoots on you from 3-4 meters, there is not enough time to react too much and you play mostly angles and block. I can imagine that kids playing in a much larger net would lead to a very different game where shooting is much more beneficial than any other option. Yes, NHL is what most people watch on TV, but there are millions of people playing the game that would have it ruined.
- Gene_Parmesan 6y ago
  There's nothing preventing them from having different sized nets for different levels. Basketball 3-pt lines are different dimensions per level, for instance.
  - IgorPartola 6y ago
    Which is different from soccer. One thing I really like about soccer is the human error element. They don’t use video replays at the highest levels of the game because the game should be exactly the same whether it’s a bunch of kids playing with the only ball in their neighborhood or the World Cup finale.
    - ajuc 6y ago
      Kids are playing soccer with all kinds of weird goal sizes, the standard one at the schools I've seen was about 50% the size of the "real" ones. Nobody really talks about it because it doesn't matter as long as it's the same size for both sides. Kids are also often playing with 1 goal and 1 goalkeeper and 2 teams trying to score (you have to move past half the pitch after regaining possession before shooting)- that way on 1 field you can have 2 games going on at once and only 1 person has to be the goalie in each of these games. And we've played soccer on random backyards - you just put 2 backpacks as the goalposts and you're ready to go. I think the focus on rules and dimensions is very american, kids just want to dribble and shoot, the score and the minute details aren't important :). As for replay they were introduced in high-level football last few years. It's called VAR and most fans hate it because it spoils the celebrations after a goal is scored and you have to wait to know if it's really a goal or not.

by m8s 6y ago

keiferski 6y ago

I don’t think the goal is necessarily to have more goals, but to reduce the pile up of players around the net. Maybe it’s my goalie experience speaking, but the highlight of hockey to me was always the direct confrontation between a shooter and the goalie. The more chaotic the goals, the less interesting the sport is.

remarkEon 6y ago
Inclined to agree. The goals I remember from watching hockey in my youth are the really sexy ones. A risky pass and a breakaway, or some slick skating at the blue line to put some defenders off balance. Also, “just make the goal bigger” sounds a lot like “change the rules so more runs are scored” in baseball. You lose an element of the game you can’t get back when you do that. Maybe that’s a little “old man yells at cloud” but whatever.
JohnBooty 6y ago
I think like the article says, the way you reduce the pileup around the goalie is to make it possible to score from places other than the pileup around the goalie. Just as the viability of 3-point shooters opened up the floor in the NBA, making it viable to score from the blue line in the NHL would open the ice as well. When I was a kid in the 80s players would score from the blue line all of the time. They were still relatively low percentage shots but a guy could absolutely score with a slapper from the blue line. Enough that you had to respect the threat. Not unheard of for a d-man to score 20 or 30 in a year. As a fan that was fun too! Not as fun as a magical "sexy" Gretzky goal. But you could hear the anticipation in the building when the puck went back to some guy who had a cannon from the blue line. Al Iafrate, etc. Today, if a defensemen actually scored from the blue line, the team would probably immediately release the goalie and fire the goaltending coach lol. Only reason to shoot from long range is so you can get the puck into the scrum in the slot and hope some something happens from there.
- miskin 6y ago
  Goals from blue line are not that uncommon even in NHL [1]. Also, hockey is played on many different levels than NHL and trust me, if I got one USD for each goal I got from blue line, I'm doing just fine :) [1] https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/video/chara-levels-slapshot-blue-line-capitals-goal-bruins/ https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/video/chara-levels-slapshot-blu...

miskin 6y ago

I'm a hockey goalie, too. I think we have to think about non-NHL goalies too. Not every adult is 2m high and if we make net size bigger we will effectively make the game unplayable for "average" goalies. When a shooter shoots on you from 3-4 meters, there is not enough time to react too much and you play mostly angles and block. I can imagine that kids playing in a much larger net would lead to a very different game where shooting is much more beneficial than any other option. Yes, NHL is what most people watch on TV, but there are millions of people playing the game that would have it ruined.

Gene_Parmesan 6y ago
There's nothing preventing them from having different sized nets for different levels. Basketball 3-pt lines are different dimensions per level, for instance.
- IgorPartola 6y ago
  Which is different from soccer. One thing I really like about soccer is the human error element. They don’t use video replays at the highest levels of the game because the game should be exactly the same whether it’s a bunch of kids playing with the only ball in their neighborhood or the World Cup finale.
  - ajuc 6y ago
    Kids are playing soccer with all kinds of weird goal sizes, the standard one at the schools I've seen was about 50% the size of the "real" ones. Nobody really talks about it because it doesn't matter as long as it's the same size for both sides. Kids are also often playing with 1 goal and 1 goalkeeper and 2 teams trying to score (you have to move past half the pitch after regaining possession before shooting)- that way on 1 field you can have 2 games going on at once and only 1 person has to be the goalie in each of these games. And we've played soccer on random backyards - you just put 2 backpacks as the goalposts and you're ready to go. I think the focus on rules and dimensions is very american, kids just want to dribble and shoot, the score and the minute details aren't important :). As for replay they were introduced in high-level football last few years. It's called VAR and most fans hate it because it spoils the celebrations after a goal is scored and you have to wait to know if it's really a goal or not.