1. The league dumped its ban on two-line passes. This was a no-brainer. Both the Olympics and U.S. collegiate hockey allow two-line (or “offside”) passes–that is, passes that travel over a player’s own blue line and the red line without being touched by an opponent. Not surprisingly, they boast more scoring and faster action than the NHL. Ditching the two-line-pass rule will permit home-run passes and exciting up-ice breakouts. It will also cripple the “trap” as an effective defensive strategy.

I agree with this, and share his belief that this will help put a stop to the annoying “trap.”

2. The NHL reduced the dimensions of goalie equipment by about 11 percent. I was a late-comer to this idea, but as a youth coach recently wrote to me in an email, “Look at Dryden and Tretiak and all the greats, they were naked compared to goalies today.” Good point. Thanks to equipment innovations, NHL netminders’ pads have ballooned in girth over the past two decades. If you don’t believe me, take a gander at Martin Brodeur’s pads–and then look at those of, say, Ed Giacomin. It’s as if the goalie gear went on steroids. Anyway, tighter restrictions on equipment size seem pretty sensible.

Well, no, that’s not really a good point. Just because the mighty Ken Dryden made do with less padding than today’s goaltenders, that doesn’t mean that Brodeur should have to do the same. That’s like saying that Derek Jeter should have to play baseball with Honus Wagner’s glove.

3. If a game is still tied at the end of a five-minute overtime period it will be decided by a shootout, with each team taking three shots (followed, if necessary, by a “sudden death” format). How much fun will that be? A penalty shot isn’t called “the most exciting play in hockey” for nothing. Imagine a series of penalty shots to determine the winner of a hard-fought game. For one thing, it’ll keep more fans in the seats–and watching on TV–past the end of regulation time. It’ll also provide a bevy of riveting highlights for SportsCenter, which might in turn attract new fans to the sport. Above all, it’ll just be a joy to watch world-class goalies and skaters face off one on one.

I’m not a fan of this idea, not at all. What’s wrong with a hard-fought game ending in a tie? The penalty shot will no longer be “the most exciting play in hockey” if we start seeing it several times a week. Goal-scoring isn’t everything.

4. The league brought back the old tag-up-offsides rule. Until a few years ago, the NHL allowed players to dump the puck into their offensive zone before their teammates were out of the zone, provided those teammates “tagged up” at the blue line prior to heading back in to pressure the opposing defensemen and fight for the puck. (Got all that?) The old rule helped move the game along. It prevented needless whistles and stoppages. And it’s just what the NHL needs.

Agreed. Tag-up offsides should be a good thing.

How many fans won’t be back after the year-long lockout? Not as many as the NHL would like, thinks Currie:

Truth is, I think the league screwed the pooch with its work stoppage–big time. I get the strong sense–from sportswriters, personal conversations, and the email I’ve received from fellow hockey junkies–that large swaths of NHL fans said “To hell with ‘em” sometime this past spring. Bringing back the diehards will be tricky enough, to say nothing of wooing the league’s more casual followers.

I wish he were wrong, but I suspect he’s right. That’s why I think the rule changes, while not all bad, are pretty much quixotic. The overall idea seems to boil down to more goal-scoring. But no matter how many goals are scored per game, the overall perception of ice hockey as abstruse, foreign, inscrutable, and boring isn’t going to go away. That was a big problem before this wretched work stoppage, and now the league is in serious trouble. That’s a shame, because hockey’s got it all: speed, agility, raw bone-crunching power, strategy, and even the occasional fistfight… baseball and football are OK, but I’d rather watch a hockey game than any other sporting event. It’s all that.

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NHL Newsletter
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Hockey is back and it’s been a busy day in the NHL with lots
of breaking news. We thought you’d want a quick
overview:

CBA Ratified
The NHL Board of Governors ratified the new Collective
Bargaining Agreement today! Go to NHL.com to read more
about the highlights of the new CBA as well as the CBA
FAQ’s.

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The Rules have Changed
In addition to ratifying the CBA, the Board of Governors
approved comprehensive rule changes for the 2005 — 2006
season. In addition, there will be no more ties, as
tied games will be decided by shootouts.

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What Team has the First Pick in the Draft?
The NHL held the draft lottery today to determine what
team will select first in the 2005 NHL Draft on July 30.
Go to NHL.com to read breaking news on the 2005 NHL
Draft order and to see where your favorite team will be
selecting.

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What else is News?
Everything from a new look to the NHL Shield to the NHL’s
Olympic participation next February! Please continue
visiting NHL.com for updates and news about the NHL’s
exciting plans to start the season!

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Overall, this is good news for all hockey fans. However, I am a bit concerned about the rule changes. I’m a flaming left-winger in most respects, but when it comes to NHL hockey, I am an arch-conservative. I haven’t had a good chance to sit down and digest this stuff, nor have I pondered the ramifications (plenty of time for that on the airplane tomorrow), but what’s a weblog for if not to post some half-thought-out kneejerk reactions? Here are some immediate thoughts:

• I disapprove whole-heartedly of the no-more-ties rule, for starters. Save the shootouts for the post-season. There is nothing wrong with a tied game, even a nil-nil tie. Fuck a shootout.
• There’s a new Goaltender Trap Zone, which will sharply curtail the goaltender’s ability to play the puck behind the goal line. Why? Why don’t we just take away his stick, too? I can live with the 11% reduction in the size of the goaltender’s equipment, I guess, but this new Trap Zone will prove to be more of a Crap Zone.
• I have no problem with the new rink-size dimensions.
• I can also live with the new two-line pass rule (it will now be OK to pass the puck from behind your own blue line to the other team’s blue line; the center line won’t count for this).

I could wish for fewer rule changes, but any hockey is better than none at all.

Update: I ought to explain one thing. I don’t agree with the conventional wisdom that more goal-scoring is going to make professional hockey more “exciting” and “fun” and thus make it a more desirable consumer product. No, I will keep insisting that more goal-scoring is going to cheapen the product. When goals are few and far-between, they’re much more exciting than when they happen every five minutes. A 3-2 win is better than a 7-5 win, and what I’m afraid we’ll end up with is a video-game-like version of hockey where an average game has fifteen or twenty goals scored. It’s not all about the goals, it’s all about the speed, power, and finesse.

You simply don’t need to hear the air-horn and Gary Glitter’s “Rock and Roll (Part 2)” every five minutes. It’s more exciting when it’s more rare and improbable an event.

(This probably says something about me, psychologically, but I don’t feel like thinking about it.)

Another update: I just noticed that the GIF images I linked to are tiny. They’re apparently resized on the fly by some clever JavaScript or something. You’ll have to go to the rule-changes page if you want to see them in their full-sized glory.