What's Your Most Controversial Hockey Opinion?

[BlueMed]

Older generational talents like Gretzky and Orr are incredibly overrated. Today's game is bigger, faster, stronger, and more skilled than ever before. Gretzky may have been the most dominant player ever to play, but McDavid and Crosby are the 2 best hockey players of all time considering their speed, skill, and IQ. If you put McDavid in a time machine and send him to Gretzky's era, he would probably go coast to coast 8 times a game despite the clutching and grabbing that use to take place. Towards the end of Gretzky's era is when the fundamentals of goaltending really even became established. That's why most of his highlights consist of goaltenders 5 feet out of their net, biting on his terrible fake shots, and way out of position when he scores. That would never work on any goaltender today. And nowadays, you can't get away with just having a high IQ like Gretzky. You need the skating and skill (stick handling, shooting, etc) to go along with it.

 

[Acallabeth]

Older generational talents like Gretzky and Orr are incredibly overrated. Today's game is bigger, faster, stronger, and more skilled than ever before. Gretzky may have been the most dominant player ever to play, but McDavid and Crosby are the 2 best hockey players of all time considering their speed, skill, and IQ. If you put McDavid in a time machine and send him to Gretzky's era, he would probably go coast to coast 8 times a game despite the clutching and grabbing that use to take place. Towards the end of Gretzky's era is when the fundamentals of goaltending really even became established. That's why most of his highlights consist of goaltenders 5 feet out of their net, biting on his terrible fake shots, and way out of position when he scores. That would never work on any goaltender today. And nowadays, you can't get away with just having a high IQ like Gretzky. You need the skating and skill (stick handling, shooting, etc) to go along with it.

Today's game is so big it has giants like Kane, Kucherov, Gaudreau, Panarin, Marchand, Marner and so on as superstars. You'd think by messages like that the NHL is 800 copies of Eric Lindros and Chris Pronger.

 

[Hustlr]

One game of that trickery and Stevens or someone would lay the career ender on him, I guarantee it.

 

[UK Canuck]

Connor McDavid is the best player in NHL history, like every other sport in the world, the players get better, stronger, faster as generations go on

 

[WeThreeKings]

Anthems don't belong in the game.
Players should be allowed to celebrate however they want.
Players should speak their mind and exhibit personality vs throw out tired cliches.
You shouldn't be allowed to leave your feet to block shots or passes.
Fighting should be heavy suspensions.
Anyone pushing or shoving after a whistle should be penalized.

 

[Howboutthempanthers]

1. Goalies are overrated. A new goalie wins the vezina every year. Goalies play really great one year, and completely terrible the next year or the year before. Goalies that changes teams either improves drastically or falls back down to earth. Rookies can win the stanly cup. 40+ year olds can also win the stanly cup. All this shows that a goalie is mostly as good as the team in front of him. There are of course some skills needed to be a nhl level goalie. But beond that, I donno man. How do you really evaluate a goalie anyway? What you need is a hot goalie and a good team. Thats how you win. If the team is good enough you dont even need a hot goalie.
2. Get rid of fighting. Hockey alone is entertaining enough.
3. Get rid of hitting. Yeah, allowing skating full speed ahead and slamming your body as hard as you can against another player seems like a bad idea. Other types of physical play should be legal tho. I mean, being big and strong should still have an advantage. I just dont like to see people get hurt.

Love the bolded.
Then it kind of uhhh... no, please no.

 

[BlueMed]

Today's game is so big it has giants like Kane, Kucherov, Gaudreau, Panarin, Marchand, Marner and so on as superstars. You'd think by messages like that the NHL is 800 copies of Eric Lindros and Chris Pronger.

Those guys are the exception due to their high end skill. GMs nowadays are very reluctant to draft players under 5'10. That's why no one knew where Cole Caufield was going to end up in the draft. Look at the Blues defense for instance...

Pietrangelo 6'3 210 lbs
Bouwmeester 6'4 206 lbs
Parayko 6'6 230 lbs
Gunnarsson 6'2 198 lbs
Bortuzzo 6'4 216 lbs
Dunn 6'0 203 lbs
Faulk 6'0 217 lbs

Also, size is more than just height now. It's about weight and muscle mass because strength and conditioning have advanced too. This just represents how competitive the league has gotten.

 

[StLHokie]

The changes made to improve player safety have had a large detrimental effects on other aspects of the game.

 

[HockeyGuy1964]

Mine is that for the most part analytics are for nerds who've never played hockey. The vast majority of podcasts, twitter people, bloggers etc who preach about analytics above all else have never played hockey in their life

Is it your duty to start this exact thread every year? Just wondering.

Your Controversial NHL Opinions

 

[BrockLobster]

Older generational talents like Gretzky and Orr are incredibly overrated. Today's game is bigger, faster, stronger, and more skilled than ever before. Gretzky may have been the most dominant player ever to play, but McDavid and Crosby are the 2 best hockey players of all time considering their speed, skill, and IQ. If you put McDavid in a time machine and send him to Gretzky's era, he would probably go coast to coast 8 times a game despite the clutching and grabbing that use to take place. Towards the end of Gretzky's era is when the fundamentals of goaltending really even became established. That's why most of his highlights consist of goaltenders 5 feet out of their net, biting on his terrible fake shots, and way out of position when he scores. That would never work on any goaltender today. And nowadays, you can't get away with just having a high IQ like Gretzky. You need the skating and skill (stick handling, shooting, etc) to go along with it.

And then theres mario lemieux...

 

[Kunta Kinte]

Pierre Larouche most underrated player of all time.

 

[ToDavid]

Mine is that for the most part analytics are for nerds who've never played hockey. The vast majority of podcasts, twitter people, bloggers etc who preach about analytics above all else have never played hockey in their life

This isn’t really a matter of opinion. It’s a question of fact and I would bet you’re wrong.

 

[Acallabeth]

Those guys are the exception due to their high end skill. GMs nowadays are very reluctant to draft players under 5'10. That's why no one knew where Cole Caufield was going to end up in the draft. Look at the Blues defense for instance...

Pietrangelo 6'3 210 lbs
Bouwmeester 6'4 206 lbs
Parayko 6'6 230 lbs
Gunnarsson 6'2 198 lbs
Bortuzzo 6'4 216 lbs
Dunn 6'0 203 lbs
Faulk 6'0 217 lbs

Also, size is more than just height now. It's about weight and muscle mass because strength and conditioning have advanced too. This just represents how competitive the league has gotten.

In fact, the large players you list are the exception due to their skill.
Sizing up the NHL: 2019-20 NHL teams by age, height, weight... (needs subscription)

Because the NHL is shrinking.
Fourteen seasons ago, in 2003-04, the average weight in the NHL was 206.41 pounds. This season, it has dipped below 200, to 199.54. And though the average height has also dipped, from 6-foot-1.24 in 2003-04 to 6-1.05 this season, it's not enough to account for the weight loss.
In 2003-04, there were 117 players in the NHL weighing at least 225 pounds; 17 of them were at least 6-6. Five years later, there were about the same number, 113, weighing 225. But by 2013-14 the number had dropped to 81, and this season it stands at 41, with seven of those players at least 6-6.

Faster NHL has players turning to weight loss, nutrition to keep up

Now you're definitely right about the conditioning, however, as I have already posted, I believe it's a bit overrated and its importance is somewhat overstated by the fans and the media. But the truth is the NHL has become smaller, lighter and more skilled. Which is the exact change the old superstars would thrive after.

 

[Hatfield]

Jersey-centric takes:

Best jerseys ever worn by:
Buffalo Sabres - the black ones
Vancouver Canucks - the dark blue orcas (Messier years)
New York Islanders - the white fishermen (the colors were great - logo sucked but so did/does the original)
Washington Capitals - blue eagles
Anaheim Ducks - current ones. They do suck, but the Disney logo was embarrassing. Not because it was childish but because it made the NHL look like Disney’s b**** (colors were good though)

Mooterus wasn’t bad at all, and is in fact the Stars’ best jersey besides the current one.

Canadiens, Bruins and Rangers jerseys are overrated. Nostalgia value aside, they’re objectively kinda weak. I’d never suggest that they change, but let’s stop pretending they’re unimpeachably the best in the league.

Hartford’s jerseys weren’t that great and the logo isn’t that clever.

 

[Freudian]

The phrase "eat the puck" came from when pucks were made out of licorice instead of rubber.

 

[Harvey Birdman]

Fighting over a clean hit no matter how hard should result in a delay of game penalty for the instigating team.

 

[canuckster19]

Game should go to 4v4 or reduce the amount of games to 70.

Remove offside, bring back two line pass, two line pass is from center to offensive blue line only.

When Seattle comes into the league, expand playoffs to 24 teams, 8 divisions of 4 and then get rid of the lottery, top 3 teams from each division makes the playoffs, team that gets first overall pick isn't the last place team but the team with the largest margin to getting a playoff spot.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Connor McDavid is the best player in NHL history, like every other sport in the world, the players get better, stronger, faster as generations go on

In that case Crosby would be the best player in NHL history. Not saying that McDavid can't catch up though.

 

[GrizzGreen]

Matt Tkachuk is a top 10 player in the league in terms of having true value to his team.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

most of these opinions aren't "controversial" as much as they are straight up terrible and worthy of being ignored. Some good ones in here though.

 

[GrizzGreen]

90% HF posters know less than zero about hockey

 

[AMDZen]

Older generational talents like Gretzky and Orr are incredibly overrated. Today's game is bigger, faster, stronger, and more skilled than ever before. Gretzky may have been the most dominant player ever to play, but McDavid and Crosby are the 2 best hockey players of all time considering their speed, skill, and IQ. If you put McDavid in a time machine and send him to Gretzky's era, he would probably go coast to coast 8 times a game despite the clutching and grabbing that use to take place. Towards the end of Gretzky's era is when the fundamentals of goaltending really even became established. That's why most of his highlights consist of goaltenders 5 feet out of their net, biting on his terrible fake shots, and way out of position when he scores. That would never work on any goaltender today. And nowadays, you can't get away with just having a high IQ like Gretzky. You need the skating and skill (stick handling, shooting, etc) to go along with it.

This shouldn't be controversial and only is because of people's cognitive dissonance. Along with an unfathomable mentality for old people to believe everything was better in their day.

The players of today being bigger, faster, stronger, more skilled is just a fact. One born from the science of dieting and fitness training.

If McDavid or MacKinnon went up against the defence and goaltending from Gretzky's generation, they'd easily outproduce Gretzky.

 

[LeProspector]

A 18 year old “High end” prospect isn’t more valuable than a proven NHL star.

 

[KingArthursCourt]

National anthems have nothing to do with professional hockey, are a waste of time, and shouldn't ever be performed at games outside of maybe international competitions.

 

[dortt]

My most controversial opinion would probably be former players should NEVER be coaches or GMs due to likely CTE issues that affect their judgement. This is based upon what we have been learning about concussions and CTE during recent years