Colin Campbell, the NHL’s Senior Executive VP and Director of Hockey Operations was on Prime Time Sports with Bob McCown and John Shannon where he discussed the lack of goal scoring in today’s game.
He confirmed that the NHL is looking to reduce the size of goaltender equipment.
“We are making an attempt this year, usually we make that attempt every year, and the manufacturers tell us they can’t do it in time after our March/June meetings,” he said. “So this year we did it faster and said, ‘OK you got a year and a half to do it.’”
He was then asked if that means there will be a noticeable decrease in the size of upper-body pads for goalies by 2016-2017.
His answer was yes.
“There are a number of items on the board, and as you know it’s the pads, the blocker, the catcher, the upper-body, the pants and the sweater,” he said.” And the sweater will go in unison with the upper body.”
While Campbell did admit that the league was looking to increase scoring, he did point out that the situation is not as dire as it was before the 2004-05 lockout.
“The one thing we have had, and you can’t deny this, is lead changes, and that’s an important thing,” he said. “If you go up 1-0, 2-1 in the second period, even the third period, if you have no hope, your fans have no hope, that’s a problem. We have had lots of lead changes even in the playoffs over the past few years.”
Other topics brought up included video review (Campbell is fine with letting the on-ice officials have the final call), and 3-on-3 overtime, of which the Director of Hockey Operations said he was a fan.
“It’s hysterical,” he said. “It’s 2-on-1s, 3-on-0, 3-on-1s back the other way, turnovers are important, goalies playing the puck up and… you can’t coach 3-on-3.”
