What's Your Most Controversial Hockey Opinion?

[Donnie740]

1. We shouldn't sing the national anthems. It's completely arbitrary. Why don't we also sing the national anthem before a film at a movie theatre, or before chowing down a meal at McDonalds?

Do you want to get rid of the handshake line at the conclusion of each playoff series too?

I mean, at work you don’t line up and shake hands with everyone from your rival company at the end of each fiscal year, so why do it in hockey?

Totally arbitrary!

 

[SheldonJPlankton]

What would your plan for a regular season be with this format? 82 games is pretty excessive when everyone's guaranteed a spot.

It would add, at most, 7 additional games to the post-season. That is assuming the first round goes all the way.

There's need to modify the regular season.

 

[Chan790]

1.) I think the NHL wastes a lot of time, energy and resources to stay in markets that simply aren't up to par as being major professional league sports markets. I'm not talking about Arizona.

2.) Gary Bettman needs to stop yanking their chains and set QC a singing telegram of Taylor Swift's "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together." It's really a bad look for the league that they keep letting fans there think there's a chance when it's clear the Commissioner and BoG have as much interest in ever returning to QC as they do in being in Saskatchewan or South Dakota or Hartford.

 

[acor]

It would add, at most, 7 additional games to the post-season. That is assuming the first round goes all the way.

There's need to modify the regular season.

Sorry, so you want to play full regular schedule, that in the end determinates almost nothing, as everyone is in postseason anyway??? That's one of most riddiculous thing I've read here...

Seriously, if you want a full-cup format, make RS a short series of low-relevancy preseason games, just to determinate a seedings, and start the REAL fun after that...

 

[Lshap]

Do you want to get rid of the handshake line at the conclusion of each playoff series too?

I mean, at work you don’t line up and shake hands with everyone from your rival company at the end of each fiscal year, so why do it in hockey?

Totally arbitrary!

The handshake line is a demonstration of respect for the opposing players and the game. It's like actors bowing to the audience and acknowledging each other at the end of a show.

The anthems and military shoutouts are a demonstration of respect for concepts entirely outside the arena of hockey. Personally, I have no issue with them, but I understand questioning why nationalism should be dragged into a sport with borderless rosters. Objectively, it's a weird fit. We've just been doing it so long most of us don't think of it.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Getting rid of salary cap loopholes was just laziness by unimaginative GMs and cheap owners.

 

[Bobby9]

Matty T has grown the game more this post season than McDoofus has his entire career.

 

[deca guard]

that there should be a 1 minute penalty option for tick tack stuff where 2 minutes is too long

 

[LevelingSolo]

Bettman is actually a decent commish

 

[Stubu]

I don't get the national anthems either. No one's playing for their country. They all play for their clubs and cities. Makes zero sense.

They should do the gold helmet thing. Singing the national anthem of the leading goal scorer of the home team.

 

[Stubu]

Do you want to get rid of the handshake line at the conclusion of each playoff series too?

I mean, at work you don’t line up and shake hands with everyone from your rival company at the end of each fiscal year, so why do it in hockey?

Totally arbitrary!

Hotsie takesy.

At work, if your company is in a very competitive field, you're actually out to destroy the rival company. Stop them from existing, if all goes well. Otherwise, uneasy co-existence. Maybe even some deals. But you basically want them to go away.

In contrast, every NHL team acutely depends on the existence of the other teams. None of the owners, or god-emperor Betting Man himself, want to go back to O6, or taking this tram of thought to the extreme, an O1 setup where hockey fans can watch the team practise lol

It's very much not a "there can be only one" scenario, I mean outside winning the Cup.

Fear not, the handshake line is in harmony with the universe.

 

[psycat]

Game, regardless of if players were better or not, was more entertaining 30 years ago.

On same note my local league is more entertaining than the NHL despite being vastly inferior in terms of skill simply because there is more attachment.

International hockey is peak hockey but for some reason I feel like that needs to be best on best, the watered down world cups etc are good for nothing.

 

[Breakfast of Champs]

I assume you're a Ducks fan?

No he's just a bedard hater who hasn't been able to get over his initial posts that he was overrated. When bedard was like ppg after 25 go last year he was constant in his assertion of this. Now hes on the McKenna > Bedard train

Some people just can't admit when they were wrong

 

[SheldonJPlankton]

Sorry, so you want to play full regular schedule, that in the end determinates almost nothing, as everyone is in postseason anyway??? That's one of most riddiculous thing I've read here...

Seriously, if you want a full-cup format, make RS a short series of low-relevancy preseason games, just to determinate a seedings, and start the REAL fun after that...

The regular season would become more relevant, not less. Top teams would battle for the best spots to play the worst teams. Middling teams wouldn't have to worry about just making the playoffs. They could focus on either being the best they can be...or trading assets to improve their futures. Bottom teams would collect additional revenue...and, if they see themselves as contending, try to battle themselves into better playoff matchups and deeper playoff runs.
On the flip side, they take the additional playoff revenue and sell off assets to improve their futures.

 

[Junohockeyfan]

Bettman is actually a decent commish

Bettman's legacy on the game will be seen as a positive once its all said and done. He is unfairly maligned by hockey fans because its fun to boo him.

Bettman deserves a standing ovation one of these days. He takes the bitterness from fans with grace and humor.

 

[Craig Ludwig]

There should be icing to the team that is killing a penalty. Some of the youth leagues in U.S and Canada apply this rule and it makes for a much better game. One of leagues I've seen, if you ice it twice during a penalty kill, you get another penalty. Love this rule.

 

[Cats2TheCup]

Most Canadian team fans don't know what winning hockey looks like anymore. Toronto fans had no business ever thinking their core was getting anywhere. Vancouver fans delude themselves every summer into thinking they have the best team in the league. And Calgary thought Matthew Tkachuk was an 80pt player who would never amount to anything in the playoffs. Edmonton and Winnipeg fans are the only clear headed Canadian team fans.

 

[BadgerBruce]

My most controversial opinion is that Gordie Howe would have been a superstar in any period of hockey history.

Why? Because he was a star in the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Even his final NHL pro season in 1979-1980 saw him post 15 goals and 41 points — and he turned 52 before the season ended.

In other words, he proved that he could adapt and thrive in four consecutive decades. He played against Dit Clapper (born 1907, a rookie in 1927), and Ray Bourque (retired in 2001).

Think about that.

I’m a believer in the old saying that you are what your record says you are, and Gordie Howe started his NHL career two years before Bobby Orr was even born and ended it two years after Boston’s boy wonder retired from the game.

Too often, posters suggest that it’s “impossible” to evaluate players from the past against contemporary skaters because the game has changed so much that an apples-to-apples comparison just isn’t realistic. While that is usually a reasonable stance, it doesn’t hold up when the player is Gordie Howe, a guy who proved over and over (and over and over again) that his greatness was not generationally confined. No hypothesizing required. He may or may not be the greatest player of all-time, but in my view he is the most adaptable player the game has ever seen.

 

[JFedol]

1C's or having elite center depth isn't really mandatory for a cup IMO. As long as you have genuine star power with your wingers, solid depth, elite goaltending, star studded #1D or a solid defense core. You absolutely can win a cup without a true 1C IMO. I 100% think a core of Tkachuk, Kane, Kucherov and let's say....Fox could win a cup even with average center depth.

Chicago won 3 cups with some of the mediocre center depth that you'll probably might ever see in the cap era. They probably don't win without Toews in 2010 or a lot of other years lol, but you get my point.

 

[Profet]

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. Hiring a bunch of 30 year old nerds who never played hockey over experienced people who understand how hockey works is stupid and we’re saying that play out in the failed Toronto experiment. People who bash the “Old Boys Club” are akin to young people who bash their manager or CEO thinking if they got rid of any hierarchy and let them all equally run the show things would go better. A lot of people online think they know more than NHL GM’s who’ve spent their entire life around the league.

This is completely and utterly incorrect.

Yours is that Kravtsov is an NHL player.

Sigh... And I just saw the post date... Still sticking to my comment.

 

[Crosby2010]

The handshake line is a demonstration of respect for the opposing players and the game. It's like actors bowing to the audience and acknowledging each other at the end of a show.

The anthems and military shoutouts are a demonstration of respect for concepts entirely outside the arena of hockey. Personally, I have no issue with them, but I understand questioning why nationalism should be dragged into a sport with borderless rosters. Objectively, it's a weird fit. We've just been doing it so long most of us don't think of it.

A lot of history when it comes to players serving and playing in the NHL. Hockey is tough, the military is tough, I think sometimes sports like to align with that sort of toughness. Always has.


For me, I to this day don't like the netting above the glass. I think since it minimizes pucks going into the stands that it takes something away from the fans and the experience. Yes, I know what led to the netting going up in the first place.

 

[hskey]

I don't think I'd go that far with it, but I've always felt this way to a certain degree. I'm a Pens fan so I've been lucky enough to get to see both all time greats and cups. However, I'd gladly trade 1 or 2 of those cups If it meant that I had gotten to see Lemieux, Crosby and Malkin stay healthy throughout their prime years. Seeing all time greats at the peak of their abilities wrecking the league is more enjoyable to me than winning a cup. I would have rather gotten to see Lemieux and Crosby play full seasons in 92/93 and 10/11 than to have seen them win more cups in their careers.

I'm a Pens fan too, we are spoiled

 

[PlayMakers]

Players and teams today are 10x better than players and teams from the golden era.

 

[North Cole]

My most controversial opinion is that Gordie Howe would have been a superstar in any period of hockey history.

Why? Because he was a star in the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Even his final NHL pro season in 1979-1980 saw him post 15 goals and 41 points — and he turned 52 before the season ended.

In other words, he proved that he could adapt and thrive in four consecutive decades. He played against Dit Clapper (born 1907, a rookie in 1927), and Ray Bourque (retired in 2001).

Think about that.

I’m a believer in the old saying that you are what your record says you are, and Gordie Howe started his NHL career two years before Bobby Orr was even born and ended it two years after Boston’s boy wonder retired from the game.

Too often, posters suggest that it’s “impossible” to evaluate players from the past against contemporary skaters because the game has changed so much that an apples-to-apples comparison just isn’t realistic. While that is usually a reasonable stance, it doesn’t hold up when the player is Gordie Howe, a guy who proved over and over (and over and over again) that his greatness was not generationally confined. No hypothesizing required. He may or may not be the greatest player of all-time, but in my view he is the most adaptable player the game has ever seen.

You must have some incredibly tame opinions if your most controversial is that a top-4 all time player would be a superstar in any era.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

That though I hated it at first, I've grown to like the puck over the glass penalty and hope it never gets removed.

If you're afraid of getting a penalty by accidentally throwing the puck over the glass, try making a play on the ice instead of "high and hard."