SPORTS: Hockey Rules

I have to admit, I think the NHL has come pretty close to having the ideal set of rules. I know various people are having fits trying to turn goaltenders back into goalies, rather than passable imitations of the Berlin Wall. But generally, I think I like where the game is at. But like anything else, there might be a tweak or two that I DO like.

Watching Mike Modano succeed tonight in the face-off circle reminded me of how lop-sided face-offs were the last time Rod Brind'Amour and the Carolina Hurricanes were in the playoffs. Like Modano, Brind'Amour tended to dominate at home and get dominated on the road. Seems it's a BIG advantage to be able to put your stick down second, an advantage afforded the home team. Soooo, how 'bout this to generate some offence? Make it the Offensive team's right to go in second all the time, except for face-offs at centre ice. For those, and those alone, home team gets second rights.

I'd also like to see players who shove attacking players over the blueline, JUST as one of the attacking team's players is taking the puck across the line into the defensive zone should get a Delay of Game penalty. Or at least interference. It stops the game, just as assuredly as shooting the puck into the stands does. What's the difference?

Lastly, and this isn't so much a rule change as a way to get more out of the regular season. I'm all for the change to three point games, thus ending the lunacy of claiming Paul Maurice's Leafs were a winning club during his tenure, when they missed the playoffs the last two season. It's phony stats. Make a regulation-time win worth three points, an overtime win two points, an overtime loss one point and no points for losing in regulation time. Sure, it invalidates the old record book, since some team is going to get 170 points at least. But some of us can actually divide by 1.5 and see how the new totals rank against the old totals. But that's just part one of my "Make it MEANINGFUL" campaign.

After using points to determine the playoff contestants for each conference, throw out ALL games against non-playoff teams and rank the conferences by what percentage of points each team got against playoff teams against what they could have got.

Let's do some math. (ooops, lost three-quarters of you right there. Thanks for sticking by me you smart people).

Detroit won the President's Trophy this year, getting more than their fair share of points against some weak sisters in Chicago and St. Louis. It would be wise to note that this is cyclical and both teams were better than last year, and they will be better yet again next year. But for this year, not so good. Once you take away the points Detroit gained against them, you might find that Detroit ended up with something in the order of 74.3 per cent. (these numbers are all figments of my imagination). Now take San Jose, which had its own weak sister in Los Angeles. As it turns out, San Jose might actually have a better percentage against actual playoff teams, say 75.8 per cent. This might very well have led to a flip-flopping of seeds in the West. Would San Jose have fared better playing Nashville and then Colorado, rather than Calgary and then Dallas? I think you can make a case for it.

Okay, so this sounds like sour grapes from a San Jose fan. I'm not, although I DID predict better things for them in pools. No, the allure of this feature is the impact it makes on the end of the season.

How many times in the last few years have we seen Detroit stage organized rest time for its veterans? With first clinched, the Red Wings have done the smart thing and rested a LOT of their veterans for a game or two down the stretch. Why not? These games have no effect on THEIR placement. Granted, it more or less makes a mockery of those games (moreso that Detroit still wins a lot of them). But if winning the Stanley Cup is the ultimate prize, no one can criticize the Wings for their plans.

BUT, if the last few games are against playoff teams, then Detroit might very well not have the luxury of resting players against fellow contenders. Three or four body-reduced losses might, in fact, really cost Detroit a seeding spot. Sure, the team can still rest it's old guys against the likes of L.A., Chicago and St. Louis, but all that does is make those games more competitive. They'll ice their best and play as well as they can against Anaheim and San Jose down the stretch, which doesn't happen under the current system.

I repeat, we HAVE to go to the three-point a win system to make the percentage seeding plan work. But it WILL help give the regular season meaning, and set up the playoff to have truer seeds based on performance against playoff calibre teams, rather than lucking into a weak division in any given year.