Where Has the Offence Disappeared to?

We are now two seasons into the New NHL and it only took one season for NHL scoring to decline. With still a week to go in the 2006/07 season the NHL teams are on pace for an approximate 7% decline in total goals score which might seem like a small percentage but it equates to approximately 550 goals plus.

The 2005/06 season saw five players reach the 50-goal plateau and there were another three players within five goals of 50. The 2006/07 currently has one player, Vincent Lecavalier, with 50 goals and there are only two other players within five goals of 50. Lecavalier will finish the season with 52 or 53 goals, last season there were four players who scored 52 goals and higher.

So what has happened? How, within one season and abiding by the same rules, does the NHL have a 7% decline in total goals scored?

The first area of the game that I looked at was power plays and I didn't need to look any further. When the regular season comes to a conclusion, the NHL would have seen an approximate decline of power plays from the 2005/06 season to the 2006/07 season of 16%. With less power plays comes less goals and of the approximate 550 plus goal decline, the power play is responsible for approximately 74% of the decline. So have the players adapted to the new rules? Have the officials been less vigilante in their calling of the rules this season? Who knows? All I know is that the NHL was more exciting last season and the primary reason why was goal scoring.

I am still concerned about the size of equipment that is used by both player and goalie. Reduced the equipment size to that of the '80s and early '90s and you will see more room on the ice and the goaltender will be required to make a save rather than have the puck just hit him and get credited with a save. Rather than entertain the notion of increasing the size of the nets, reduce the size of the equipment, again.

Top French Canadian Scorer of All-Time

When we think of great French Canadian forwards names like Lemieux, Lafleur, Bossy, Richard and Beliveau come to mind. Often ignored is Marcel Dionne, the little beaver. Take a look at the record books and you begin to question why this guy is so often over-looked. Marcel Dionne holds two of the three career scoring marks for French Canadians, only fellow French Canadian Raymond Bourque's career assist total of 1169 is greater than Dionne's. Marcel Dionne started his career in Detroit and played four seasons for the Red Wings before he signed as a free agent with the Los Angeles Kings. Unfortunately for Marcel, it could have been this signing that left him unnoticed for many years and ignored when we discuss the best players of all-time.

Dionne’s Career Stats: 1348gp - 731g - 1040a - 1771pts

Credibility Issues

The NHL has some credibility issues with many detractors of the game and unfortunately no matter what the NHL does this fact will never change. Recently the NHL has been experiencing some credibility issues with it's current fan base and the NHL should deal with these issues before they start to lose the casual fan. Three issues that bother me and often have me questioning the NHL are the points awarded to those teams who lose in Overtime or the Shootout, the on-ice officials and the trade deadline.

Why is the NHL rewarding teams for losing? No other league awards a team for losing. The NBA and MLB refuse to allow ties in their games, there must always be a winner and there is no recognition given to a team when they lose in extra innings or in overtime. The NFL has a sudden death overtime quarter of 15 minutes, the loser of the game receives no recognition. Prior to the lockout many experts used the excuse of the Small Market Average Joes versus Big Market Superstars, how can the small markets compete? Well, thanks to the CBA, that excuse is now null and void. It is time to have a winner and a loser, the winner gets two points and the loser gets zero points.

The NHL officials have never been worse than what they are now. On many nights it appears as though the officials miss the obvious while calling the questionable. There seems to be many officials who lack judgment and cannot recognize an obvious dive or which player is actually causing the infraction. The officials lack consistency and often call a very unbalanced game. All this puzzles me because NHL officials are paid extremely well and dedicate their entire year, or at least they should be, to honing their skills and abilities. So, what is the problem? Why are the NHL officials so inconsistent and inept? The NHL has to take a look at their officials and recoup from what has been a gong show on many nights over the past two seasons.

The NHL trade deadline has to be altered so that it becomes more difficult to buy a playoff berth and/or a Stanley Cup. What is the point of the first 60 games of the season if you can buy your way into the playoffs and possibly all the way to the Stanley Cup final? More emphasis should be put on team building rather than player buying. What you do during the off-season and the training camp should have more effect on what you do at the end of the season and into the playoffs. You want to trade draft picks and/or prospects for a 40 goal-scorer who is being paid 6 million dollars a season, then you should have to be held responsible for 1/2 of that players salary which means the trade deadline should be in and around the 1/2 way mark of the season. This seems more sporting to me.

Pure Dominance

The 1976/77 Montreal Canadiens - From 1976 to 1979, the Montreal Canadiens won four consecutive Stanley Cups while enjoying some of the greatest regular-season results in NHL history. The Montreal Canadiens best season during this four year stretch was 1976/77, when Montreal went 60w-8l-12t for an NHL record 132 points. The Canadiens were dominant on offense, defense and in goal. Guy Lafleur won both the Art Ross and Hart trophies, Larry Robinson won the Norris trophy, and Ken Dryden along with Bunny Larocque shared the Vezina trophy. Lafleur, Robinson, Dryden and teammate Steve Shutt were selected to the First All-Star Team and Guy Lapointe was selected to the Second All-Star Team.

Players Equipment - Regulate It

I remember as a youngster playing hockey, the only plastic on my body was my cup and my shin pads. I used to use shoulder pads and elbow pads made entirely of foam. I felt safe in this equipment, I didn't get hurt nor did I bruise. Who determined that it was safe to use hard composite plastic over top of foam to better protect hockey players around the world, who decided that hockey players needed to look like RoboCop?

The NHL has gone through a plethora of injuries due to concussions over the last ten years and as of today their are such players as Keith Primeau having to retire and others like Tim Connollly who do not know if they will ever play again. On the NHL injury list as of today are 12 players who are currently injured with a concussion, most are as a result of a hit to the head. Now you might be thinking that this is a relative low number for a 30 team league, trust me when I say that there have been worse numbers than these in the NHL over the last 10 years. The one thing about an a concussion is that it is an uncertainty as to whether the player will return to action any time soon or even at all. These 12 players that are currently concussed, they might be 12 new retirees before or shortly after the 2007/08 NHL team's training camps.

Many will argue that many of these injuries are also due to a lack of respect among the players for each other, I agree with this point to a certain degree. Is that lack of respect due to not caring for one another or the feeling of being invincible? From the time that many of these current NHLers started playing the game and up until now they have been equip with body armour and not hockey equipment, the invincible mentality has been in them since they were little boys.

Regulate the equipment and get rid of the unnecessary plastic pads. Do this and your will save a few careers.

The Broad Street Bullies

The Philadelphia Flyers of the ‘70s could beat you with muscle or with talent. The Flyers willingness to do whatever it took to win games, even if it meant stretching the rules, led media and the fans of the NHL to call them the “Broad Street Bullies.” The Philadelphia Flyers were coached by Fred Shero and captained by Bobby Clarke. After becoming the first expansion team to record a 100 point season, 1973/74, Philadelphia then bullied their way through two rounds of the playoffs and would met the Boston Bruins for the Stanley Cup. Continuing with their physical style of play, the Flyers built up a 3-2 lead in the series. In the sixth game, Rick MacLeish tallied the game winning and Stanley Cup winning goal in the first period. The Philadelphia Flyers became the first expansion team to win the Stanley Cup. Philadelphia repeated as Stanley Cup champions with a victory over the Buffalo Sabres in the 1975 Stanley Cup Final. Unfortunately for the Flyers and their fans, the Flyers’ Stanley Cup victories of 1974 & 1975 would be the only Stanley Cup victories in the franchises history.

Send a Message

On two previous occasions, the McSorely and Bertuzzi incidents, the NHL had an opportunity to send it's players a message about goonery in the NHL. The NHL was firm and harsh in the punishment that they handed out. Unfortunately for the NHL and the players on the receiving side of goonery, the timing and circumstances surrounding these two players and the NHL were not in the NHL's favour. The messages that the NHL were triyng to send were not acknowledged by the players.

With McSorley the NHL was dealing with a player who was on his way out and had no real future. The NHL suspended McSorely for the rest of the season and the playoffs, this suspension amounted to 23 games and McSorley never returned to the NHL.

"We must continue to be vigilant when there are acts that cross the line," commissioner Gary Bettman said. "In response to a clearly inappropriate act, the league acted firmly and decisively."

"We always try to make a statement in whatever we do because we don't want it to happen again," said executive vice president Colin Campbell, who handed out McSorley's punishment. "We're trying to right a wrong."

McSorley's shocking attack was an embarrassment to the NHL

The NHL was facing a impeding lockout when Bertuzzi jumped Moore from the behind, punched him in the head and eventually drove his head into the ice. Bertuzzi would end up being suspended for 13 regular season games, 7 playoff games and the lock-out season where he could not play in North America and/or Europe. I would have preferred to see this suspension run a dozen or so games into the 2005/06 season, but the NHL felt that the year away from the game was sufficient enough. In addition, The Vancouver Canucks were fined $250,000.

"It wasn't this time about whether it should be two games, four games, five games. We felt the player had given up his right to perform the rest of the season," said NHL Executive Vice President and Director of Hockey Operations, Colin Campbell.

The most recent act of goonery, Simon's blatant slash to Hollweg head and face. In this particular case we have another player whose career may have been completed after this season and if not it certainly would be within another season. The old saying "three strikes and your out" should apply here and I think Simon should be suspended for the equivalent of 1/2 of a season, 41 games. and the 2006/07 post season. As it stands right now, Simon has been suspended indefinitely.

Enough is enough, send a message and make sure that it is acknowledged this time.

Update: The NHL has suspended Chris Simon for 25 games, regular season and playoffs.

Very disappointing, suspend the act and not the result of the act. The fact that Hollweg was not injured should have no barring on this decision.

'80s Tough Guys

The last decade where you could say that the enforcer played a role in a team,s success. The '80s were the decade of protecting the stars and there were many enforcers who performed this duty quite admirably.

My favourite enforcers and two of the best were Dave Semenko and Dave Brown. In my opinion, Dave Brown was the best enforcer in the '80s.

Dave Semenko served as Gretzky's bodyguard for 9 seasons (1 in the WHA and 8 in the NHL) and was great at doing so. In Semenko's time as an Oiler he never surpassed the 200 pim plateau and had seasons of 158, 135, 80, 194, 141, 118, 172 and 141. Semenko's pim totals are quite astonishing given the fact that he was an enforcer and among the best enforcers in the '80s.

Dave Brown joined the Flyers, on a full-time basis, in 1984/85 and made an immediate impact in the NHL when it came to enforcement. Brown was a southpaw who stood 6'5" and had a tremendous reach. After 3 seasons, which saw him achieve 716 pim's, the NHL and it's enforcers became wise and started avoiding Brown whenever possible. Dave Brown would spend a equivalent of 10 seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers, Brown also spent 2 1/2 seasons in Edmonton and Brown would finish his career with a season in San Jose.

Other very prominent '80s tough guys were Bob Probert, Chris Nilan, Tim Hunter and John Kordic; just to name a few.

Yzerman's Career Season Overshadowed

Steve Yzerman holds the distinction of recording the most points by a player not named Gretzky or Lemieux. At the conclusion of the 1988/89 season, Yzerman finished 3rd in total points with 155. Unfortunately for Yzerman, Lemieux had 199 points and Gretzky had 168 points. Yzerman's career season was overlooked by the NHL as Lemieux and Gretzky would take the first and second all-star team honours. In addition to being overlooked for the NHL year end all-star teams, Yzerman would also be overlooked for the Hart Trophy which went to Gretzky. The players around the NHL did recognize Yzerman's value to his team and would honour him with the Lester B. Pearson Trophy, the only time that Yzerman would win this trophy. Yzerman's only other major regular season trophy was the Frank J. Selke trophy, which he was awarded at the conclusion of the 1999/2000 season.

Smyth & the Oilers - Only the Beginning.

For Oilers' fans it was a tough week as they witnessed another fan favourite depart Edmonton due to financial restraints. Ryan Smyth joined a long list of Oilers' greats/fan favourites who left Edmonton because the Oilers could not afford to sign them or did not feel that the player warranted such a lucrative contract. It started with Paul Coffey and included Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Bill Guerin, Doug Weight and now Ryan Smyth.

Don't fret Oilers' fans as this will not only be an Edmonton problem, it will be a league wide problem. Many teams will experience what the Oilers' fans experienced last week, the departure of a fan favourite and/or a very good player due to financial restraints. Many teams will have some tough decisions in the future and I am going to look at one of these teams, the Calgary Flames.

The 2007/08 off-season will be a tumultuous one for Calgary Flames' fans as the Flames have some tough decisions to make. Even before the summer of 2008, the Flames have to address this upcoming off-season's UFAs (9) and RFAs (3) and what the Flames decide this summer will have a significant impact on next summer's signings. The Flames have significant UFAs and RFAs to sign in the summer of 2008 and these players are Iginla (UFA), Kiprusoff (UFA), Langkow (UFA), Huselius (UFA), Regehr (UFA) and Phaneuf (RFA).

During the summer the Flames will have to address what they are going to do about veterans who are UFAs. Veterans coming into UFA status this summer include Friesen, Amonte, McCarty, Hamrlik, McLennan and Stuart. I suspect the Flames will let Friesen, Amonte, McCarty and Stuart walk while they sign Hamrlik and McLennan. Not that these two are fan favourites, but the Flames will have to let either Hamrlik or Stuart walk and I think it will be Stuart because my suspicions are that he will command a higher salary than that of Hamrlik. Not mentioned UFAs are Primeau, Nilsson and Ritchie. Of these three, only Nilsson makes significant money and he will receive a modest increase in salary. Of the RFAs, Lombardi is the only significant RFA who would see his 2006/07 salary potentially double.

Now that I have somewhat set the table on the 2006/07 off-season it is time to look at the 2007/08 off-season, the one where the Flames have to make some very difficult decisions. Of the big six Free Agents, you can assume that the range of salary will be from 3.5 million to 7 million. Tallying up the current salary of these 6 players you get a combined total of 17.43 million. I suspect that these 6 players in 2008/09 will be paid a combined total of 27.5 million, this total could be as high as 30 million. Your are the Flames GM, who do you trade at the deadline? Do you trade Iginla, or Kiprusoff, or Regher, or Phaneuf, or Huselius, or Langkow? My suspicions are that Regher and Langkow are dealt, two players that all teams would gladly have on their team and would be considered top line players on all but a handful of teams. What must not be lost is that Yelle, Conroy and Zyuzin are UFAs as well in the summer of '08. The Flames could very well let all three of these players walk because they have no choice but to. When the 2008/09 season opens, you could see a team that looks similar to that of Tampa Bay where 4 or 5 players make up over 1/2 of the available payroll.

So in conclusion, Smyth and the Oilers were the first of what will be many sleepless nights for GMs and disappointed fans around the league. For those who laughed at Edmonton's misery this past week, your time will come.

Gretzky's 51 Consecutive Game Point Streak

Wayne Gretzky has set many records, some that seem untouchable. Gretzky's records include a 92 goal season, a 215 point season, a 894 goal career, a 2,857 point career, an 163 assists season, 50 goals in 39 games and a 51 consecutive game point streak.Of the many records the one that many would not consider the most impressive stands out as the most impressive to me, Gretzky's 51 consecutive game point streak.

I remember the game in the old LA Forum where the streak was finally broken by Markus Mattsson, all good things must come to an end. What impressed me the most about the streak was not that it lasted 51 games but by how many points Gretzky accumulated during those 51 games. During those 51 games Gretzky would register 61 goals and 92 assists for 153 points, a 3 points-per-game average. Gretzky would end up the 1983/84 season with an amazing 87 goals and 118 assist for 205 points. Not his best campaign, in fact he had 3 better, but nonetheless an extremely impressive campaign.

Coming Soon.

This blog will look at threads over the past week on Top Shelf and I will expand or summarize my thoughts as it relates to these threads. I will also look at events in the NHL, both past and present.