hockeyfanland.com

SlayerScott says...
Boooo.

25 games is absolutely ridiculous - 15 years ago that's not even a penalty, it's called finishing your check. Torres gets abuse for being a repeat offender but every one of his suspensions have been for hits - not elbows, not stick infractions, not knee on knee - hits. Bodychecks. You don't admire your passes. I thought Shanahan was taking a bit too much abuse but this has got me on the Anti-ShanWagon.

Landon Ewaniuk says...
Exactly, 15 years ago these actions would've been acceptable... if a player cannot adopt to the rules in place today , they should face the punishment. It's called evolution of sports.

SlayerScott says...
Is the evolution of Hockey a good thing? I would say no. I preferred a 22 team league with higher scoring, no shootouts, more hitting and less concussions. A big part of the concussion epidemic is the rule changes - the penalty for flipping the puck over the glass, the trapezoid, the obstruction crackdown forbidding the second defenceman from holding up forecheckers, the two line pass - all of these have contributed to the rise of concussions. However, that's much less sexy than blaming big hits and fights. Many concussions are on defencemen digging the puck out of the corner. They can't get it out high and hard for fear of a penalty, the goalie can't play it and the forechecker is coming in hot - crunch. Look at a guy like Alex Ovechkin and his suspension history. He becamefamous for roaring into the corner and crushing someone. Now he's gotten suspended for it twice and on both occasions it might have been avoided if the goalie could have played the puck, or if the defenceman could have slung it out high.

Are we to blithely accept changes we believe detrimental to the game as progress? Or do we - the fan, the paying customer - let the Evil Gary Bettman know we hate his changes to our sport? I vote for the latter.

SlayerScott says...
Is the evolution of Hockey a good thing? I would say no. I preferred a 22 team league with higher scoring, no shootouts, more hitting and less concussions. A big part of the concussion epidemic is the rule changes - the penalty for flipping the puck over the glass, the trapezoid, the obstruction crackdown forbidding the second defenceman from holding up forecheckers, the two line pass - all of these have contributed to the rise of concussions. However, that's much less sexy than blaming big hits and fights. Many concussions are on defencemen digging the puck out of the corner. They can't get it out high and hard for fear of a penalty, the goalie can't play it and the forechecker is coming in hot - crunch. Look at a guy like Alex Ovechkin and his suspension history. He becamefamous for roaring into the corner and crushing someone. Now he's gotten suspended for it twice and on both occasions it might have been avoided if the goalie could have played the puck, or if the defenceman could have slung it out high.

Are we to blithely accept changes we believe detrimental to the game as progress? Or do we - the fan, the paying customer - let the Evil Gary Bettman know we hate his changes to our sport? I vote for the latter.