I don't think we'll ever get back to that level of scoring. Even with wider nets.
There was nine 100 point scorers that season. Lemieux had 199 points himself in 76 games.
It's a different time. Context changes. It was a perfect storm in the 80's. The league more than tripled in size in the 70's, mostly with Canadian players, then as more of the best non-Canadians pushed the worst Canadians out, it gets that much more difficult to score, as coaches have more talent to work with. If the NHL had 90 teams today, I'm pretty sure goals per game would go up.
Equipment got better for everyone, not just goalies, and when you see some of the holes the puck finds even today, you can see that a couple inches of padding here and there can make a huge difference. Everyone blocks shots now too, it's not just the psycho on the team putting his face in front of the puck.
You guys think Blake will pursue Will Butcher in free agency?
Can never have enough, but they've got a lot of defensemen under contract already. Born in Wisconsin, so that's probably going to be Minnesota or Chicago.
Oh how I miss the days where players and teams were not over coached...
What does over coached mean? Basically, minimizing mistakes, right? That's what everyone tries to do in their job. It's professional sports, not pond hockey. Coaches just have more players with more ability today. Instead of riding 3 lines, most coaches try to be more efficient with 4 on shorter shifts.
If your line is out there for 45 seconds, the other team has one out there for a minute, over time, you're going to lose the battle. More and more coaches are then forced into doing things the same way. Same with other spheres of life. Damn near everything is done on a computer. Everyone has a phone.
One idea I heard tossed around is that the amount of practice time coaches can have with the team could be further limited in the CBA.
The idea being that it would make it harder to install rigid systems leading to more chaotic play and defensive breakdowns.
Yet the fate of coaches will still be tied to the performance of players. If your job was dependent on the success of other people, not necessarily on your own skill and aptitude, would you let them make mistakes to increase the overall level of entertainment at the office?
Yes!!! Make those nets wider!!! It needs to be in proportion to how much % of the net was available to shoot at in the 1980's. Somewhere in there, there's a magical equation waiting to take us from a 3-2 league back to a 6-4 league. DO IT!!!!
We can see with 3v3 that the nets aren't necessarily too small, or that goalie equipment is necessarily too big. Full time 4v4 might be the way to go.
The Russians dismantling the Canadians in The Summit Series forever changed hockey. Esposito said they didn't run plays, they just played hockey until they lost to the Russians. Not only running systems but the Russians were also doing cross fit type workouts if you watch the old tapes. We can't compare eras but I like to think I was lucky enough to see some of it knowing it will never go back to that again.
Organized will more often than not beat disorganized. Efficient will more often than not be more effective than inefficient.
