In a span of 72 hours this week, the NHL delivered two seismic announcements, one that sweeping rule changes were being recommended to create offense, the other that an audit backed the league's claims of massive financial losses.
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  Face Off: Jiri Slegr
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On the surface, the close timing would appear coincidental. But there is a chance that it was not.
Consider this comment from commissioner Gary Bettman at his All-Star Game news conference eight days ago, on the subject of rule changes for 2004-05: "At this phase, we want to make sure that we have taken a good look, because I am anticipating, in the same time frame, having a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. It's my vision that we will have the foundation to move forward, the right economics, the right rules, to give our fans and this game a fresh look moving forward."
That makes his plan -- as stated -- akin to stuffing all the Christmas presents into one box. Then, they can be unwrapped after an extended lockout in a multifaceted attempt to rekindle interest in the game and regain lost fans. If that is the NHL's genuine intent, it shows uncharacteristic foresight as well as a rare connection with those who support the sport.
Which is to say that there simply has to be more to it. Given the league's repeated and emphatic rejections that anything at all was amiss with the game over the past few years, it seems only logical that something else pushed this sudden and dramatic set of rule changes.
Here are three theories as to what might have been Bettman's real incentive to finally acknowledge more offense was needed:
Alexei Kovalev used to say time and again that scoring was down because owners wanted it that way. The more players scored, he would say, the more they would have to be paid. Following this line of thinking, Bettman might have decided it would be OK to unleash the game's stars once owners are assured of lower salaries.
The national television executives with whom Bettman must negotiate a new deal before next season have made clear they want the game to be more entertaining. This time, they have not asked for glow-pucks or net-cams but for more goals. And when they complain, Bettman cannot shrug it off.
Bettman wanted to polish his white hat for the upcoming labor battle. The league already appears to have the public in its corner on that count, but the additional good will generated by a displayed desire to increase scoring promises to strengthen that.
Icy chips
Jack Riley, the Penguins' neral manager when they entered the league in 1967 and still a fixture at home games, had this to say on the rule prohobiting goaltenders from playing the puck behind the goal line: "I'll tell you, Jacques Plante is rolling over in his grave right now. He was the first to do it, and generations of goalkeepers have learned to do it since then. What a change."
No official statistics are kept on how much goaltender stickhandling affects the game, but here are the numbers from the Penguins' most recent home game: Boston's Andrew Raycroft handled the puck seven times, once clearing it out of the zone, twice turning it over. Sebastien Caron handled it five times, twice turning it over. Of course, the number for an accomplished stickhandler such as Martin Brodeur -- not to mention one who plays behind a system designed to take advantage of his talent -- probably is double that, at least.
People inside the game were quick to point out that it might be defensemen rather than goaltenders who are most hurt by the rule. Or, as Caron put, "They're going to get killed." That is because, as Penguins assistant general manager Ed Johnston said, defensemen will face increased pressure to get to dumped-in pucks before forecheckers drill them into the end boards. "A lot of teams now, the defensemen don't even go back to get the puck out," Johnston said. "They just slide to the hash marks, and the goalkeeper passes it up. Defensemen are going to be taking a lot more hits."
For all the attention received by the owners' announcement of $273 million in cumulative losses last season, it drew virtually no notice that the losses are not a recent development. Five seasons ago, for example, teams lost $234 million, according to league figures. They lost at least $120 million each of the three seasons that followed.
Don Cherry, Canada's most bombastic hockey commentator, recently was reprimanded by his network for saying on the air that most NHL players who wear visors are "Europeans or French guys." A survey conducted afterward by the Toronto Star proved his remark was not far off the mark. About one-third of the league's 728 players -- 232 -- wear visors. Of those, 50.4 percent are European. Of the 66 players born in Quebec, 39.3 percent wear visors, a greater percentage than for non-Quebec Canadians (20.1 percent) or Americans (23 percent).
All six of the Penguins who wear visors are Europeans: Aleksey Morozov, Martin Strbak, Tomas Surovy, Milan Kraft and Dick Tarnstrom.
The NHL is beginning to urge the NHL Players Association about making visors mandatory, but serious discussion on the matter is not expected while the CBA is negotiated. Like helmets, visors would be required only for entry-level players, with veterans being grandfathered into the process.
With the demotion of Marc-Andre Fleury and injury to the Florida Panthers' Nathan Horton, only three players taken in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft are still playing in the NHL: Eric Staal in Carolina, Nikolai Zherdev in Columbus and second-rounder Patrice Bergeron in Boston.
Ryan Malone's excellent play of late would have to continue at a torrid pace the rest of the way for him to become a serious Calder Trophy candidate. The Montreal Canadiens' Michael Ryder has 41 points, 11 more than Malone, and the New York Islanders' Trent Hunter has 22 goals, five more than Malone. Overall, Malone is fourth in the rookie scoring race.
In a sport without a true star who transcends regional boundaries -- at least not in Mario Lemieux's absence -- the incomparably personable Jeremy Roenick might be the closest the NHL comes. One sign came with the loud, warm cheers he received in Minnesota at the All-Star Game. But a more powerful might have come Thursday, when his jaw was shattered by a puck at Madison Square Garden. The 18,200 in attendance rose to their feet and roared as he left the ice, prompting a groggy Roenick to manage a wave of acknowledgement.
Only 213 days before the doors can be locked.