What's Your Most Controversial Hockey Opinion?

[Melrose Munch]

Southern Expansion should have targeted Houston and Atlanta properly. Part of the reason people come out against it is because cities like Raleigh are not much bigger than edmonton. A Houston-Dallas rivalry would do wonders for the league.

The Panthers should have moved to Miami when their lease was up. I get they get the revenues from Broward but it's better to be in the center city.

The Leafs could lose their spot as number one in the city if the NFL ever decides to come. In saying that, I would rather an NFL team in Toronto than another NHL team.

I am a Blackhawks fan, and it's hard for me to trust the franchise the way the owner and some former players act. I just think it's time to turn the page. That's why I'm excited for Bedard.

We should go to 34 teams, and 84 games The NHL needs the money.

Unless much more outreach is done, the NHL will never get a billion-dollar TV contract.

Phoenix is not the best sports town, and I don't think it's hockey that's the problem, given the Diamondbacks have issues.

The nets should be bigger like below, why not have McDavid score 200 points, it's time for Gretzky's records to fall. Records fall all the time.

I prefered when the Leafs and Wings were in the Western Conference.

Fans are not always the best source for changes, years ago people complained about 8 division games per year and now they complain about 3. Everyone should play at least a home and home against each other.

I wish the Los Angeles Kings got more coverage out east. Interesting team, even when bad.

 

[David Bruce Banner]

I miss the big hits, fights and line brawls of the early 90's.

Stupid CTE.

 

[DS7]

Some Refs definitely have it out for certain teams.

For the Nucks it's Kelly Sutherland

 

[Oilslick941611]

Anthems before games need to go

I don't like any of the original six jerseys and logos

It doesn't bother me when a Canadian team loses in the playoffs, most teams are made up of mostly Canadians.

I don't care about tournaments that aren't best on best.

I like to watch hockey, so a longer schedule doesn't bother me.

Analytics don't account for puck luck and bounces

The best team doesn't always win, this goes for games, series, and playoffs.

Black and red jerseys need to be gone.

Tampa change your damn jerseys and colours.

Tampa has an * because of Kuch.

There is no ref conspiracy against your favourite team. Reffing is just f***ed up league wide and needs to be fixed.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

Analytics has proven:

Face-offs have no correlation with winning

Dump and chase is less effective than carrying the puck in

Two major conventional wisdoms in hockey- shattered by analytics

Analytics is merely finding patterns and relationships to winning. The trick is to find the meaningful relationships rather than the "eating bread causes cancer" relationship as my stats professor liked to say

That you think analytics have proven those things perfectly illustrates the problem with how people cite analytics.

It's information. It's not proof. As you point out, many people use the logic that ice cream causes crime (the one my stats prof used).

 

[TheAngryHank]

Fighting reduces violence.

 

[MabusIncarnate]

I like Brad Marchand

 

[Oddbob]

I like Brad Marchand

This isn't controversial. It is Absurd!

 

[Devonator]

I do think we need less teams....down to 26....also bring back Brawls....I was raised on 70's hockey and it was fantastic.....

 

[Chuck Norris Trophy]

The nets should be bigger like below, why not have McDavid score 200 points, it's time for Gretzky's records to fall. Records fall all the time.

The new records would be tainted if they were scored on bigger goals. So no. You can change the size of goalie gear, the rules and everything else and people are still ok with it, but changing the size of the net? That's an absolute no-no. I don't like it either, goals get scored enough as it is.

 

[Breakfast of Champs]

Not sure how controversial any of these are but:

- NHL should switches to wins and losses period. 2+1 would also be acceptable, the current format for pts allocated per game is stupid.

- Regular season standings are basically useless (partially due to the pts system). We've seen enough low seeds go deep or win it all to show it doesn't really mean a lot (04 flames, 06 oilers, 12 kings, 14 kings, 21 Habs, 23 panthers). The games are officiated completely different and it allows for a totally different style of play. A hot goalie can also be the difference between a 1st round exit and a cup , timing is everything.

- Nathan MacKinnon is clearly a better player than Auston Matthews, despite Matthews individual awards.

- offside reviews make the game much worse

 

[ijuka]

The regular season should be more interesting and meaningful. Right now, it's a slog. I also wouldn't really mind alternative ways to earning points than just winning games. An idea I had is for there to be division-wide mini tournaments sprinkled in throughout the season, which reward standings points depending on how well you perform in them. It would at least make the regular season a bit more interesting.

Another one is simply to abolish the NHL draft lottery in its entirity, and instead to replace it with the system, where teams' draft order is determined by the amount of standings points earned while mathematically eliminated. That system would also likely have the worst teams picking first, but it would completely eliminate tanking.

 

[Hockeyholic]

Best of 9 playoff series

A) More games for fans
B) More $ for owners
C) Networks get more air time
D) Creates more heated rivalries

 

[Ulysses31]

1) Call the Fing game, a penatly is a penatly is a penatly is a penatly whether playoffs or 1 team has had 10 powerplays alrdy or if a ref fuct up earlier


2) scrap offside challenges during regular season

3) double the net size but teams have 2 goalies on the ice

 

[BigTomBomber]

Season should be 76 - home/home with other 31, and an addt’l h/h against 7 division opponents

Back to backs eliminated. Basketball starts in Dec to avoid arena overlap

3 games a week. 4 weeks of the year you get a m/w/fri/sun but thats after 2 days off and team gets 2 days off after

26 week total, season with 2 bye weeks mixed in (24 + 2)

Drop the AS gameq

Let them play in the Olympics: Condense the schedule a bit on Olympic years (6-8 m/w/f/s) , maneuver the bye week for all teams to Olympics and tack on another week

 

[JoVel]

The regular season should be significantly shorter.

 

[Fatass]

Until a star player Leads his club to a Cup his legacy will be that like Dionne: a great point producer but lacks what it takes to be a winner. And that’s a commitment (sacrifice) to playing the right way without the puck.

 

[waitin425]

Forwards get too much praise by fans. Don't get me wrong....McDavid, Draisatl, Matthews, Mackinnon, etc, are all excellent players. But Makar, Fox, Karlsson are actually their equals. They just don't play as sexy a position.

Makar 1 for 1 trade for McDavid would be a lot closer than people think.

 

[Melrose Munch]

The new records would be tainted if they were scored on bigger goals. So no. You can change the size of goalie gear, the rules and everything else and people are still ok with it, but changing the size of the net? That's an absolute no-no. I don't like it either, goals get scored enough as it is.

The goal post changed in football. That sport changes all the time. The NHL can too.

 

[Rodgerwilco]

-The league should be trying to get calls as close to 100% right as possible. Therefore, the offside review should remain as is. I think folks who claim that they can't get excited because offside review is a thing are disingenuous.

Crazy that wanting correct calls as often as possible is actually a controversial opinion lol.

- Allowing players to indiscriminately punch each other in the head and/or tackle each other to the ice after any stoppage in play should be stopped.

 

[NYRfan85]

Analytics have ruined sports. All of these 'advanced stats' are meaningless in my opinion, and are just more fluff for the media to present/argue about. I don't personally understand what all of those numbers mean. Just give me the tangible stats--goals, assists, PIM, GAA, etc.

Ditch the All Star game. This season's was so cringey and embarrassing IMO. Most of the players don't care about it, and the games themselves are just glorified practices.

Shorten the preseason to 3 games, and add 2 more games to the regular season. 84 games has been done before--it makes for an even schedule for every team in their division. We don't need 6-8 preseason games, it's just more risk for injury.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

Shorten the season 10 games
Widen the rinks by 10 feet
Go back to ties with 10 minutes 4 on 4 OT. No loser point.

 

[Voight]

Analytics has proven:

Face-offs have no correlation with winning

Dump and chase is less effective than carrying the puck in

Two major conventional wisdoms in hockey- shattered by analytics

Analytics is merely finding patterns and relationships to winning. The trick is to find the meaningful relationships rather than the "eating bread causes cancer" relationship as my stats professor liked to say

Best way to describe analytics (from JFK Movie) - "The FBI says they can prove it through physics in a nuclear laboratory. Of course they can prove it. Theoretical physics can also prove that an elephant can hang off a cliff with its tail tied to a daisy! But use your eyes, your common sense."

 

[Donner]

Analytics have ruined sports. All of these 'advanced stats' are meaningless in my opinion, and are just more fluff for the media to present/argue about. I don't personally understand what all of those numbers mean. Just give me the tangible stats--goals, assists, PIM, GAA, etc.

Ditch the All Star game. This season's was so cringey and embarrassing IMO. Most of the players don't care about it, and the games themselves are just glorified practices.

Shorten the preseason to 3 games, and add 2 more games to the regular season. 84 games has been done before--it makes for an even schedule for every team in their division. We don't need 6-8 preseason games, it's just more risk for injury.

This is a hilarious paragraph to read, through and through.
1) They are meaningless because you don't understand them?
2) Those are tangible stats, they are mostly based on shots and shot location. But they are all tangible and just as tangible as a goal or assist
3) If you go back far enough GAA and SV% were viewed as "advanced stats" as well.

 

[Donner]

Best way to describe analytics (from JFK Movie) - "The FBI says they can prove it through physics in a nuclear laboratory. Of course they can prove it. Theoretical physics can also prove that an elephant can hang off a cliff with its tail tied to a daisy! But use your eyes, your common sense."

Or, the typical fan has very limited actual knowledge of the game of hockey beyond the rules. Many fancy themselves as quasi-scouts, coaches or GMs but almost no one has actual good insight or understanding

And even the insightful ones are chalked full of biases than influence how they elevate the game

Not to mention, most casual fans are puck watching/big play watching and miss 90% of the play off the puck.

And lastly, no causal fan has insight into the actual systems of the team. Teams develop specific strategies each game and fans have no knowledge of it. So someone could judge a player for having a bad game, when it reality they were following specific instructions by the coach. Perhaps they were told to play super high in the zone, or to cover closely a specific player. Maybe that leads to a goal against and the casual fan is ripping that player for being in the incorrect spot, but actually that is where they were instructed to play

Overall, I would say the causal fans ability to properly elevate the game of hockey is around a 2/10. Most GMs and scouts is likely only around a 6/10 based on how many bad moves teams make