And see, I don’t find it difficult somehow.
I can be nostalgic for the past while appreciating the present.
There’s no sport that hasn’t changed over the years. Some sports I came along for the ride. Football. Hockey. Baseball, I’ve all but left behind.
When the NHL was as its purest, running on adrenaline and raw emotion… was probably before my time. Probably before helmets. What I’ve been fortunate to see of that earlier era, I’ve loved.
But take all of the biggest highlight reel goals from the Bruins of the 90’s and compare them to a highlight package of the team from just last season? I bet last season bests it. One season over a decade. I can turn a game on between two middling teams who I don’t give a shit about now and be wholly entertained. I couldn’t say that… hell, fifteen years ago?
Different? Absolutely. Worse? Not necessarily. Not to me.
IF you like it, great. No harm, no foul.
And, I must admit, in certain respects today's game is superior to that of yesteryear.
My yesteryear is the 1970s, and in almost every category that matters to me, I prefer that game.
I remember few helmets back then, and though obviously necessary today, I dislike them.
Derek Sanderson has said the NHL never should have mandated helmets, and I rather agree. They detracted from the personality of the game. More, to my mind they began a trend toward a misguided sense of invulnerability and hence, recklessness.
Yes, the NHL had stick swinging incidents prior to their arrival (Ted Green, Wayne Maki), and its true that many players used their sticks as a weapon.
Even so most NHL players understood that using a stick this way was bad business, because without helmets, everyone was vulnerable. Hence, a certain red line, a certain respect.
I submit that helmets changed that, and also led to the "gladiator equipment" we see today. Again, there is a false sense of invulnerability and, unfortunately, a concomitant lack of respect.
But, as Wally notes, times change, for good or ill.
That's life.