If you could fix one thing about the NHL, what would it be?

[fedoroviselite]

Without any doubt I'd go back to the one ref system

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

No more game management and call the rule book like the IIHF does, regular season or playoffs.

I don't want the IIHF crease rule, but for the headshot crowd just calling the two and ten they do on head contact would change a lot of the hits most don't like in the NHL. When it is through the body they don't throw for the game but they still get the misconduct. I have defended through the body for a long time, but if they want to keep talking about it there is a pretty clear alternative that we all watch internationally for those of us that watch the WJCs, Worlds, and Olympics.

 

[Realgud]

I don't want the IIHF crease rule, but for the headshot crowd just calling the two and ten they do on head contact would change a lot of the hits most don't like in the NHL. When it is through the body they don't throw for the game but they still get the misconduct. I have defended through the body for a long time, but if they want to keep talking about it there is a pretty clear alternative that we all watch internationally for those of us that watch the WJCs, Worlds, and Olympics.

Yeah I meant follow the NHL rule book, like the IIHF follows their own rule book.

But if you want to talk about adapting some of the rules, go for it, could be interesting to hear people's opinion on specific rules as I personally don't have a strong opinion about the rules. I think the NHL rules, if applied correctly, should be more than enough.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

Yeah I meant follow the NHL rule book, like the IIHF follows their own rule book.

But if you want to talk about adapting some of the rules, go for it, could be interesting to hear people's opinion on specific rules as I personally don't have a strong opinion about the rules. I think the NHL rules, if applied correctly, should be more than enough.

Yeah I read that a bit quickly, my bad. I agree with calling the rulebook no matter the circumstance.

 

[Redwing66]

Skating Lord Stanley in June is ridiculous.

 

[DamonDRW]

No complaints as we are still irrelevant.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

Other:

When a coach and GM help cover up the sexual assault of one of their players by their video coach for over a decade, and that video coach goes on to sexually assault young men at a college and high school, don't let that GM and coach have the privilege of working in the NHL anymore.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

Other:

When a coach and GM help cover up the sexual assault of one of their players by their video coach for over a decade, and that video coach goes on to sexually assault young men at a college and high school, don't let that GM and coach have the privilege of working in the NHL anymore.

Curious, do you think the NHL should have forced the Wirtz family out of ownership? I am always surprised with the people that want all the other organizational people punished that this isn’t a bigger drumbeat. I haven’t read the whole report, but I don’t believe they never knew.

 

[OgeeOgelthorpe]

Curious, do you think the NHL should have forced the Wirtz family out of ownership? I am always surprised with the people that want all the other organizational people punished that this isn’t a bigger drumbeat. I haven’t read the whole report but I don’t believe they never knew.

Yes.

f*** the Wirtz family. They were a black mark on the NHL for decades.

 

[Run the Jewels]

Gimme the Gold rule for the draft lottery.

Added Gold Plan under getting rid of current draft lottery. Thanks.

 

[Run the Jewels]

I want the three point system they use for the IIHF. 3 for the regulation win, 2 overtime or shootout, 1 overtime or shoot out loss.

Second one and at this point it is running close to the 3 point system after a decade of the lottery is implementation of the Gold Plan for the draft order.

If I had a third one and this will be unpopular, but do away with the wildcard. The entire point of this playoff system when proposed was to play in division and crown your champ at the end of round two, letting the NHLPA switch to the wildcard makes it worse. I don't care if a division is top heavy, let them keep building on the hate for each other like in the 80s. Top 4 play no shifting teams around.

Added IIHF point system and Gold Plan. Thanks.

 

[Run the Jewels]

Call the rule book. Use robo-refs if need be. But score, who is home/away, period, time in period, and part of the season should never factor into what is and is not a penalty.

Added this as an option. Thanks.

 

[Geezer WC]

Get rid of Bettman and his US college basketball bracket system. It sucks watching the Oilers and the Kings in the first round for the fourth year in a row.

 

[ridilon]

Get rid of all the teams south of the Mason/Dixon line. No hockey where ice cannot occur naturally.

 

[dalem177]

Divest/vastly decrease the gambling crap. It's obscene.

 

[minimal]

Gold plan for the draft. The NHL keeps trying to be so "smart" about things they round the bend and end up being idiotic.

No more game management. Make the refs accountable, whether that's post-game reports, having them do press conferences, or allowing coaches to challenge for/against penalties. No other league in the world will trot out excuses like "the game is just too fast, they're only human".

Least realistic of the bunch since it would require societal change at large imo: no more gambling and ads on the uniform. Bring back some dignity and respect to the players, teams, and game.

 

[dalem177]

Can someone explain what "the Gold plan" is to me in dummy-talk?

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

Curious, do you think the NHL should have forced the Wirtz family out of ownership? I am always surprised with the people that want all the other organizational people punished that this isn’t a bigger drumbeat. I haven’t read the whole report, but I don’t believe they never knew.

Oh they must've known. There were several sources saying it was an open secret. And the reason you put Aldrich's name on the Cup and give him a day with it is so it doesn't raise any red flags leading to questions you don't want to answer. I'm sure all of HR knew, lawyers knew, and at least some of the Wirtz family knew because there would've been conversations about legal exposure.

As for forcing them out of ownership? I don't honestly know. It's such a massive thing to do and I don't really know what all that involves. But they absolutely should've been punished more than a $2 million fine. Bedard jersey sales have already more than covered that.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

Get rid of all the teams south of the Mason/Dixon line. No hockey where ice cannot occur naturally.

Why exactly?

 

[nofehr]

1. Shorten the season and balance the schedule!
- 4 preseason games max
- home and home against every team in the league
- bring in 4 more teams if you must (ugh) = 70 games per team (makes up for the shorter schedule for each team)
- add an in-season tournament or playoff play-in if you must to add more games if you must
- rivalries don't mean jack any more.
- Season ends earlier and maybe fewer injuries to the players

2. Playoffs go back to 1 v 16!!!
- no more of this crap where a 3 seed plays a 5 seed and a 6 seed plays a 14 seed. You should be rewarded for being a better team
- bring in a choice of playoff opponents if you must. Anaheim gets top seed and doesn't want to fly to New York for the first round? Fine, they can choose to play San Jose or LA, who are closer but ended up higher in the standings.
- Playoff rivalries are a joke. No wants wants to watch Edmonton - LA 4 times in a row and counting.

3. Bring back discretionary icing.
- puck jumped over the players stick and went down the ice for icing? Close enough, keep playing. No need to slow the game down. If it goes through the player to get down the ice, it clearly wasn't an intentional icing, just a missed pass.

4. Powerplays that start the period get face off in offensive zone.

5. A goal does not nullify a delayed penalty
- but the goalie cannot come out for an extra attacker on the delay (unless they were already out)

Keep:
1. puck over glass penalty
- No one wants to go back to the days of the 'oops, accidental' puck out of play to force a faceoff

2. No icing on penalty kill
- No one wants to snooze to 6 icings in a row on a powerplay

 

[Steve Yzerlland]

Stop screwing the Red Wings in the lottery. When Detroit is good the NHL thrives more...

 

[Sparty]

1-8 conference seeding for playoffs, no more Wild Card. But, make it 1 seed against 2, 3 against 4, etc. The matchups are closer in the beginning of playoffs, and get more interesting the further they go.

I have never heard anyone advocate for something like this, so can I ask if I have this right?

You'd want Washington to play Toronto in the first round right now, and Winnipeg to host Vegas. The Sens would be the seven seed with home ice against eighth seeded Montreal? The Wild would have had home ice against St Louis in a 7/8 matchup?

Why?

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

Oh they must've known. There were several sources saying it was an open secret. And the reason you put Aldrich's name on the Cup and give him a day with it is so it doesn't raise any red flags leading to questions you don't want to answer. I'm sure all of HR knew, lawyers knew, and at least some of the Wirtz family knew because there would've been conversations about legal exposure.

As for forcing them out of ownership? I don't honestly know. It's such a massive thing to do and I don't really know what all that involves. But they absolutely should've been punished more than a $2 million fine. Bedard jersey sales have already more than covered that.

So I find this interesting, you want Bowman and Quenneville effectively banned from the league but wouldn’t havd a Donald Sterling esk forced team sale. I mean yes the Wirtz family would have made a couple billion (hopefully helping the other settlement) on the sale like Sterling, but I would think they should also be booted out of the league with the other key players. They are the largest power brokers in the entire organization and should not get out of the steepest punishment available in my opinion.

 

[SirKillalot]

Other:

When a coach and GM help cover up the sexual assault of one of their players by their video coach for over a decade, and that video coach goes on to sexually assault young men at a college and high school, don't let that GM and coach have the privilege of working in the NHL anymore.

Was there evidence that they covered it up?

Unless anything else have come out, look at it from coach perspective. You are in the playoffs, you get this news with no way of proving it happened or not, and then being told it will be handled.

I kind of get the coach goes about his business of trying to win the playoffs with his team if this was told.
Though haven't read up about how exactly things went down.

 

[dj4aces]

Only one? I mean... it's a step, but there's a bunch to fix.

* The one I voted for was "no swallowing the whistle", but I would go a step farther. No more of this "game management bullshit. If the other team takes four penalties in the first period, they're undisciplined. The solution isn't to start making up stuff to call the opponent on. If the opponent takes a legit penalty, so be it, but I'm tired of seeing an opponent fall in the forest with no one around, but a tripping penalty gets called.
* I want to see the 3-2-1 point system.

On the salary cap, yeah, eliminating it means big spenders will spend big, and small spenders will sell, move and/or fold, I suppose. But I also feel like the league enjoys the stability and growth of the sport, and the markets enjoy having their teams. Seeing mass contractions or relocations would be a terrible look for the league. Just my two cents.