Hockey Fans Unite

January 17, 2007

This is a very interesting idea and one I hope gets some old media publicity.

http://www.hockeyfansunite.com is a site dedicated to bring the old NHL back which lots of hockey fans want. As mentioned on the site January 20th is Save the NHL Night. The Flyers will be in Jersey against the Devils for that game. The site wants everyone to bring signs to the hockey games on that day and show support for the old NHL I hope many people do and the media pays attention to them.

Here is a list of some suggestions to changes with NHL rules by hockeyfansunite.com and some of my observations.

Cut down on pointless obstruction calls. While obstruction calls (e.g. hooking, holding, tripping, interference, etc.) do cut down on the clutching and grabbing in the league, some of the calls have little or nothing to do with the play. Making these calls completely disrupts the flow and emotion of the game.

I agree, what gets me is the Ã¢â‚¬ËœintentÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ penalty calls. Hooking is called the most with this. If a player gets his stick parallel to the ice and is anywhere close to the opposing player then a penalty is usually called even if the player was not interfered with in any way. As more of these non-penalty are called the flow of the game is disrupted and what you are left with is a special teams game.

Decrease the width of goalie pads. Simply put, goalie pads are too wide. Ã¢â‚¬Â¦. HFU does not support increasing the size of the goal.

I agree again. The pads should be big enough for the players to be safe and thatÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s it. The equipment should fit without providing extra padding just to take up space. Making the goals bigger is not the answer the goals arenÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t broke and for the love of god please do not put lights or any crap like that in the pipes. This has been experimented with in the AHL and it is just wrong on so many levels. The lights bring fans excitement they say. No the goals and a good goal horn brings fans excitement. No more Ã¢â‚¬ËœdinkÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ off the pipe of a hard slapshot if/when the goals are implemented.

Goalies should be allowed to play the puck in the corners. This will cut down on icing related injuries.

Not sure how this cuts down icing. First, yes they should be able to play pucks in the corner. The whole trapezoid thing is just wrong. I like this rule instead, if goalies are more then 5 feet out of the crease they are playing defense and should be treated as a defensemen. In other words they are fair game to being checked. This by itself would keep goalies from wandering around too much. This is hockey people, it is a contact sport. As far as icing, I like the no touch icing that international hockey has, that would greatly reduce the chance of injury for players chasing pucks back. Speaking about international hockey I also would like to see the rinks larger to what is played everywhere else which would make the rinks about 10 feed wider. That would open the game up more. Of course that would never happen though.

Remove the shootout.

Yes please, remove the f-ing shootout. Professional baseball in the US doesnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t use a homerun derby to decide the game, they keep playing. Professional basketball in the US doesnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t use a foul shot or 3 point shooting competition to decide a game, they keep playing. Professional football doesnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t allow each team to each run 3 plays and sees who scores the most, they keep playing and accept a tie. Why on earth would hockey use a penalty shot to decide a game?

It is more exciting for the fans they say. Sure, so is fighting but the NHL is doing its best to kill that in the game. The shootout is a gimmick. Along with the Ã¢â‚¬ËœnewÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ NHL rules it was all a gimmick to get people to watch. Looking at MLBÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s record after the strike the NHL had to do something to get fans interested again or so they thought. Hockey fans were going to watch, most hockey fans are like that. What the gimmicks did was to get non-hockey fans interested in the game and it worked. But with attendance and interest down this year from last the gimmick has worn off. That is where these lighted goal posts and form fitting uniforms come in, more gimmicks trying to get fans while it destroys the fan base at the same time.

Modify the instigator penalty. Players should still receive a two-minute minor for instigating. However, the accompanying ten-minute misconduct should be removed all together. In general, losing a player for 17 minutes of a game is ridiculous. On top of this, some players receive instigators for jumping in to protect a teammate that was on the end of a cheap shot. A 17 minute package for such actions tears down the characterization that hockey plays "are tough."

Yup agree. Example of how the NHL is trying to kill fisticuffs. To add to this insane rule, after 3 instigator penalties a 2 game suspension, the fourth instigator another 4 games suspended, the 5th 6 more games suspended.

Remove the Ã¢â‚¬Å“third period final five minute instigator ruleÃ¢â‚¬Â all together.

Does any other penalty have a time restriction on what part of the game it can be apply? I don't know of any. Any other penalty fine a coach for what a player does on the ice? Don't know, but both are wrong. Why? This new penalty was in response to the Flyers Senators brawl on March 5, 2004. With less then 2 minutes left in a game emotions erupted and fights broke out. Official Score Sheet, video of the fights. Anyone watching the video can see how much the fans enjoyed it. But the NHL wanted to take that away because apparently that type of excitement is bad.

The schedule should be modified. The NHL has been busy promoting budding stars such as Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby. However, their new schedule does not allow them and other players to travel to all of the NHL cities.

I think every team should play every other team twice, once home and once away. That would leave 24 games for conference and division play. If the team plays non-conference division teams once again that would leave 14 games to play conference teams to Ã¢â‚¬Ëœbuild rivalriesÃ¢â‚¬â„¢. This still works out to at least 6 games between conference teams with 2 extra. So the Flyers would play ever team in the Western Conference twice, teams in the North East and South East divisions 3 times and Islanders, Devils, Rangers and Penguins 6 or 7 times. Seems logical to me.

The NHL should cut down the number of teams (e.g. Florida) and should relocate teams to traditional hockey cities (e.g. Winnipeg).

Ya, with the salary cap it should be easier to finance a team or 2 in Canada now. For a sport that Canada claims as their own it does not make much sense that only 6 of the 30 teams are in Canada. But I do not see Florida moving anywhere and with the talk of divisional realignment it opens the door for a couple more franchises which the NHL would want to stick south of the border. Vegas anyone?