What's Your Most Controversial Hockey Opinion?

[Neutrinos]

Players who commit an assault on the ice should be criminally charged

 

[Helistin]

Pucks are made of licorice.

 

[JT Kreider]

Chara should have been suspended for the rest of the season (including playoffs) for the Pacioretty hit. Not only that the Habs would have beaten the Bruins in round 1 with a healthy Max Pac.

There should be a big fat giant asterisk on the Cup next to the winner in 2011

 

[Sheppy]

The game is better with some dirtiness.

 

[Sheppy]

I'll comment on this one because I've been passionate about eliminating all video reviews in all sports for a long time.

-Well, #1, I've been against it in all sports for years, so it's not some recent bad call.

-It's not an issue of "slowing the game down". I don't care if you speed up the reviews so they take 10-15 seconds. I watch sports for the excitement. The excitement comes from a goal, or a long diving catch (in football). If there is a close play in those situations, I know that we won't get an "official" ruling for 10-15 seconds or up to 3 minutes.

The fact that I have to wait for a coach to look down at the floor and make a decision on challenging, a ref to point to center ice, or watch a team scramble up quickly to the to get the next play off (in football) before I know if the exciting play will actually count, all takes away from my enjoyment of the game. I want to celebrate the big play as it happens. I can't do that right now

150% agree.

I'm at the point now where I don't even get excited after a goal. I kind of just think of a reason for it to be overturned after it went in.

 

[Pilky01]

Allowing a little bit of interference is good for pace of play and especially good for player safety.

 

[one2gamble]

being able to ice it on a pp is counter intuitive

offsides is somewhat pointless and doing away with it might open the game up more

 

[Raspewtin]

the eye test is useless and anyone who puts it above analysis isn't worth listening to

 

[LarKing]

I'll comment on this one because I've been passionate about eliminating all video reviews in all sports for a long time.

-Well, #1, I've been against it in all sports for years, so it's not some recent bad call.

-It's not an issue of "slowing the game down". I don't care if you speed up the reviews so they take 10-15 seconds. I watch sports for the excitement. The excitement comes from a goal, or a long diving catch (in football). If there is a close play in those situations, I know that we won't get an "official" ruling for 10-15 seconds or up to 3 minutes.

The fact that I have to wait for a coach to look down at the floor and make a decision on challenging, a ref to point to center ice, or watch a team scramble up quickly to the to get the next play off (in football) before I know if the exciting play will actually count, all takes away from my enjoyment of the game. I want to celebrate the big play as it happens. I can't do that right now

Okay and that’s fine. You want to have the action right away. I would prefer it be called correctly. It’s a fine opinion to have of course, but I don’t think you can complain if a game winning call ever goes against your team.

 

[Jot]

Following a clean hard hit, any player on the opposing team looking for "justice" should be immediately be ejected.

Furthermore any coach who puts goons in the lineup to take runs at players should be suspended.

 

[Jot]

Any skater/goalie who successfully performs a "suicide pass", where as the teammate has no idea of an incoming hit. He is a victim of teammates trust.

That player who performed the pass should be penalized for 5 min major penalty.

 

[majormajor]

Well yes, seeing as their GM is an analytics guru and built the biggest analytics department in the NHL. Your argument pretty much highlights why fans and media shouldn't use them.

My point is that there's no single analytics approach to building a team. Most players that look good by one metric don't look good by another, and it's not like we just rank players by corsi and go with that, people argue about the numbers and come to different conclusions. Whatever Dubas' approach is, it's antithetical to the analytics approach I would take.

There's also plenty of people who use analytics that don't think it makes sense to build an entire team that way to begin with. It doesn't follow that a technique that helps compare players would be equally valid in building a whole team.

My own controversial opinion is that the amateur fancy stat community clings on to them because they believe them an equalizer in helping explain things they're incapable of spotting and understanding from watching play on their own.

I grew up playing in a family of professional hockey coaches, and I still play. Give me a player video and I could draw a line showing where he should be on the ice at every second. I'm also an economist and I know the value of data. Analytics doesn't replace on-ice hockey knowledge, think of it as a replacement for using boxcar stats to predict the future. Saying that a guy got 3 goals last week doesn't tell you that much about how many he'll score next week. Data is especially important in hockey because it is the most random of the team sports.

If an "expected goals stat" has a better prediction of future goal scoring than previous scoring does, that's a powerful argument all by itself. There's no need to "cling" to anything, it's just plain useful.

 

[Machinehead]

Every team should be majority fan-owned.

 

[swedehollow]

+/- is as good as any stat, apart from goal scoring, which is #1.

 

[robertmac43]

I'm at the point now where I don't even get excited after a goal. I kind of just think of a reason for it to be overturned after it went in.

Same. Every time there is a zone entry I worry there could be an offside challenge if a goal is scored

 

[Mr Misunderstood]

If the puck passes the goal line after hitting any part of an offensive player's skate it is a no goal.

Eliminates the "distinct kicking motion" judgement call.

 

[BCNate]

Do away with the shootout and play 3 on 3 for 10 minutes.

 

[Chrisinroch]

The regular season should be 70ish games. The first round should be 5 games.

 

[StoneHands]

Starting goalies in this era are interchangeable and dependent on the team in front of them. The top 15 or so goalies are essentially the same and would put up nearly identical numbers given the same situation.

Anyone who tells you there are clearly 4-5 goalies who are better than everyone else is dumb. The Vezina is the only trophy you'll ever see won by a player one year and then go 3-4 years without receiving any votes at all and then that same guy wins or comes close to winning it again. There is no Hasek today who can play on a bad team behind a bad defense and still put up elite numbers year in and year out.

 

[FunkySeeFunkyDo]

I don't think it's that controversial, but you seem to get smashed for voicing it - I think Ovechkin should be ranked higher all time than Crosby.

I disagree, but mine is Ovechkin is the greatest goal scorer of all time. I don't understand why his goals per game / average goals scored per game in his era doesn't show it, since it is larger than any other. (Sorry OP, that might be a slightly analyticsy opinion.)

 

[The Wizard of Oz]

Most teams retired numbers standards are way too low.

 

[Westlander]

The NHL would be much better if they went to 4 on 4 as standard.

Also, there is nothing wrong with a game finishing in a tie. Putting in the shootout in the 05-06 season was fixing a problem which didn't really exist.

 

[EdJovanovski]

Yup all of my friends who never players hockey never notice the simple yet very important details. (Stick positioning, gap control, simple/affective passing, timing, effective pivoting)

They're only wow'd by fancy highlight goals or big dekes/one timers and they almost never see the value in role players.

Spot on and that's why you see all the progressive analytics crowd bash grit, teams playing veteran/character players, what they refer to as "muh intangibles". Most of these people have never stepped foot in a lockerroom

 

[Kaner9]

The NHL should change its rules to chase after more fighting. Don't care if its so called staged fights or not.

 

[Chiarelli]

Most teams retired numbers standards are way too low.

Come on Luongo made the playoffs with the panthers once!