When Did We Just Decide That There Is Not Enough Scoring In The NHL...Again?

Is this Mike Babcock's fault? Is that who I have to blame for this shit? How many times do we have to change the rules, or the entire landscape of the sport, to increase scoring? I won't lie. I love goals. Goals are fun. However, I don't need to see each team score 6 of them a game to enjoy the intricacies of the game. Here's the bottomline. We have been through this crap before. We have gotten rid of two line passes. We have put in ridiculous quadrilaterals to stop goalies from acting as third defenseman. We have placed a strong emphasis on enforcing penalties more strictly, and in doing so have increased the volume of free flowing play. I feel pretty confident in saying that the number of powerplays per game is at an all time high, and the same goes for odd man rushes. I don't necessarily disagree with any of those changes (other than the trapezoid), but it's pretty clear that none of them had anything more than a temporary effect on the amount of scoring in a hockey game.

The fact of the matter is that, unless we plop a fucking soccer net on each end of the rink then the amount of goals being scored in a hockey game is always going to retreat back to it's mean. The coaches will adjust and the players will adjust. And really, even if they didn't, is another half of a goal per game going to get more people to watch the sport? I think we all know the answer to that. If you truly love hockey then you should love a tightly contested 3-2 game just as much as you love a 6-5 shootout. I may be in the minority here, but I enjoy witnessing the golden age of goaltending. My apologies to my forefathers, but watching the goalies of yesteryear incoherently kick at completely savable pucks kind of took away from the mystique of how good professional hockey players actually are. Since when is a great save not equally as entertaining as a beautiful goal? How many times do we have to be put defense and goaltending at a disadvantage before we realize that the players are talented enough to overcome that disadvantage.

Talent is at an all-time high. The game is quicker then it's ever been. Scoring chances are up. Shots are up. I just find it funny that people, seemingly out of nowhere, think that hockey will benefit from a change as drastic as increasing the size of the nets. I don't even consider myself a hockey purist, but I really don't think you have to be to think the something as sacred as the size of the net should stay remain constant. I don't give a fuck if you enjoy the sport or not, but don't ruin it just to increase some stupid stat by a fraction of a percentage point. A stupid stat that doesn't even begin to tell the whole story in regards to the entertainment value of an NHL game. If a change has to be made then reduce the size of the goalie pads. Just don't say I didn't warn you when that only works in the short term, but eventually averages out in the long term. It's just making change for change's sake, and with the game potentially being played at it's highest level ever, I don't understand how or why that's necessary.