NHL Scoring Decline is Big Topic This Season

As NHL scoring continues to decline every season, debate has increased this year over ways to improve on increasing the scoring.

Jeremy Jacobs the chairman of the board of governors of the NHL and the owner of the Boston Bruins said he was happy with how today’s game is being played.

He mentioned a pair of tweaks that were meant to help scoring but did not specifically do much good, including moving the goal nets one more foot further from the boards.

Jacobs said moving the nets was supposed to add to scoring but it did not make any significant difference. Jacobs said the game is faster, nevertheless still tough, but a faster hockey and the scoring will follow.

Current players and ex-players alike said they want the game to remain entertaining for the fans and know that higher scoring is likely the best way to make that happened.

One former player said that today’s generation of players is likely the most talented, most skilled and best skaters to play the game.

However, he said that the system and coaches are taking the sticks from the players hands due to running strict systems that dump and chase and fire the puck up ice as quickly as possible, all of which does not allow skilled players to highlight their skills other than a very few of the best in the game.

The Chicago Blackhawks, the reigning NHL Stanley Cup Champions are a model of how the game could improve.

Chicago is an excellent team to watch play. They have possession of the ball more than other teams, they set up plays and they play with passion.

Chris Drury a former star and an inductee to the USA hockey Hall of Fame said scoring is always at the top of the list when talking about improving the game.

They have made certain adjustments but there is no perfect answer to changing it.

He added that the players are much faster, stronger, bigger and if you make pads smaller the players could get hurt easier due to the force that hockey is played with today.

The consensus is that something must be done so that not so many games end 0-0, 1-0 or 1-1. The game has stiff competition from the other major sports in the U.S. and Canada that are all about scoring points, runs and goals.

The NHL would be much more popular if games were like they were in the 1980s and 1990s during the Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux era when games ended 5-4, 6-5 or even 8-4.