The solution to the decline in NHL goal scoring is simple and shouldn’t be rejected out of hand.
So the NHL is contemplating using their newfangled nets in pre-season games. Hey, anything that makes the game better should be welcomed with open arms.
The new nets are shallower, have a clear plastic strip along the top and built-in high definition cameras to make goal reviews easier, and has thinner mesh.
Cool.
The problem is the changes the NHL are proposing do not address the real problem facing the league: a lack of goal-scoring. Sportsnet.ca's Michael Grange addresses the issue in his latest column, suggesting goaltenders, with few exceptions, are bigger than ever. The league has addressed the size of goalie equipment the past few years, but it seems skaters now see less net than ever before.
The answer to more goals is quite simple and not exactly new: Make the damn nets bigger.
Now before you start spewing your hate mail about how some things are never meant to be tinkered with, consider that just about everything that has to do with hockey -- including the equipment, markings on the ice and training techniques -- have been altered over the years so why are the nets off limits? Players are bigger than ever and yet the nets remain the same size. It makes no sense.
Besides, don't you want to see more goals?
What is most troubling is the fact that scoring is on the decline. Players are more skilled and yet goal-scoring last season dipped to an average of 5.45 per game -- down from 5.53 the year before and 5.70 two years ago.
Wait a minute; wasn't a crackdown in obstruction supposed to lead to more goals and an increase in scoring chances? The NHL did an excellent job redefining the way the game was to be officiated when it returned to action after the lockout that kept the league on the shelf for the entire 2004-05 season. Sadly, the league has let that slip as the years have passed, but that's a subject for another day.
When the NHL returned to action in 2005-06 teams combined for an average of 6.05 goals per game. It was a work in progress, to be sure, but the game was more wide open and suddenly the best and most creative players in the NHL didn't have to negotiate their way through a mine field to make it to the other team's net. They had the freedom to express themselves offensively.
Obviously there was an adjustment period and coaches came up with ways to prevent scoring chances. That's their job. So the next year scoring dipped a bit to 5.76 goals per game. In 2007-08 it went down again, to 5.44.
Uh oh.
There was a spike in 2008-09 to 5.70. That was the year Evgeni Malkin edged out Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby to win the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL's leading scorer with 113 points. It was a thrilling scoring race, but it should be noted back when goal-scoring was all the rage in the NHL, Wayne Gretzky led the league in points in 1981-82 with 212 -- and he had more assists, 120, than Malkin had points.
Since '08-09 it has been all downhill in terms of average goals per game. That's not to say we shouldn't place value on other aspects of the game. Defence is important, but I can't recall the last time I heard people gathered around the water cooler discussing the great race for the Selke Trophy between the NHL's top defensive forwards. It just doesn't happen.
There was one 50-goal scorer in the NHL last season: Corey Perry of the Anaheim Ducks. It must be pointed out, Sidney Crosby was on pace to lead the NHL in goals with 64 when he was lost for the year at the midway point of the season with a concussion. The year before, Ovechkin was the league's only player to hit the 50-goal mark with 56.
How can we possibly not be concerned about goal-scoring in the NHL when Ovechkin, arguably the most dynamic offensive talent in the league today, scores 32 goals in 79 games? Ovechkin won back-to-back Rocket Richard Trophies a few years ago scoring 65 and 56 goals.
Ilya Kovalchuk of the New Jersey Devils, who cares about nothing more on earth than scoring goals, had 31 in 81 games last season. Say what you want about the Devils playing a defence-first system, when Kovalchuk is reduced to 31 goals, the NHL should be worried about its product.
Dany Heatley, who had back-to-back 50-goal seasons with the Ottawa Senators, scored 26 goals in 80 games with the San Jose Sharks. Vinny Lecavalier of the Tampa Bay Lightning, who led the NHL in goal-scoring with 52 in 2006-07, scored 25.
You get the point.
Nobody is suggesting the NHL bring in soccer-sized nets to add offence to the game, but making the nets a few inches bigger really can't be that big a deal. If Major League Baseball can add the designated hitter and the National Basketball Association can add the three-point shot to increase offence, then surely the NHL can makes its nets bigger.
If scoring goes down again this season, the league had better give it serious consideration.
