Has ice hockey gone too soft?

[ginger]

Footballers leading the way . Getting game stopped and medical attention as they roll around because some player brushed agsinst their shoelaces. God help us hockey never descends to this, but it might.

Trust me, that won't happen.

[jas]

Like many 'for and against' arguments, the answer often lies somewhere down the middle. I do think hockey has gone too soft and needs more "snarl" to make it more exciting. However, there was a lot of dangerous play back in the day. Ken Priestly comes to mind. He got sticked in the face so many times and commented that someone would get seriously hurt if it wasn't clamped down on. I agree with that and am glad it's less prevalent, but I think we do need a happy medium between 'then and now'

[Robert Mansell]

There's physical and then there's goonery.

No one wants the latter really but the game isn't as exciting as it even was 10 years ago.

[Doom]

I commented on this forum many years ago that I feared the worse when zero tolerance came in and those concerns have proved well founded.

Back in the day the balance was probably too much in the favour of the big physical players who could bully and stifle the more skilled players, but for me the balance has moved far too much in the favour of the small fast guys.

I always liked to see a big guy giving one of the smaller skilled guys a bit of stick on the boards, but these days they get called for being within 10 yards of them.

I really liked watching the way Dion Darling played, but if he did that now he'd spend the entire game in the box.......it's ludicrous and its taking away one of the elements supporters love.

Probably not surprising though with the suing culture in America these days. The leagues are probably scared stiff of being taken to court due to a player(s) not being protected properly.

Sadly it's taken away an element of the game supporters love to see

Regards

Doom

[ginger]

I commented on to his forum many years ago that I feared the worse when zero tolerance came in and those concerns have proved well founded.

Back in the day the balance was probably too much in the favour of the big physical players who could bully and stifle the more skilled players, but for me the balance has moved far too much in the favour of the small fast guys.

I always liked to see a big guy giving one of the smaller skilled guys a bit of stick on the boards, but these days they get called for being within 10 yards of them.

I really liked watching the way Dion Darling played, but if he did that now he'd spend the entire game in the box.......it's ludicrous and its taking away one of the elements supporters love.

Probably not surprising though with the suing culture in America these days. The leagues are probably scared stiff of being taken to court due to a player(s) not being protected properly.

Sadly it's taken away an element of the game supporters love to see

Regards

Doom

The problem on actual fights is the instigator penalty. Get rid of that rule and there'll be more natural fights occur as players react to bad hits etc

In terms of ZT, it was needed, especially at NHL level as the 'dead puck' era where guys were hooking and holding constantly was terrible to watch. Naturally when the league every young player wants to reach becomes more skills focussed it flows down to the type of players coming through.

Players skating and awareness is much better these days and because of the removal of the 2 line pass rule, neutral zone forecheck generally has to be less aggressive otherwise can get sprung for odd man rushes. It's made it much harder to catch players with their head down or without time to react.