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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Agamon" data-source="post: 2595421" data-attributes="member: 184">(Hope I'm not stepping on your toes here, KF72, but this is good news, thought I'd share)Scoring up slightly with new NHL rulesTSN.ca Staff9/20/2005 3:43:55 PMIt's early, but it seems that the NHL's rule changes are starting to produce the results the league hoped for - more goals and a faster pace - and most people in hockey circles seem to be happy with the pre-season product.Through the first 16 pre-season games, there were 101 goals scored - an average of 6.3 per game.  That's up from 5.8 goals per game in the first 16 pre-season games in 2003.The main reason for the increase would seem to be the number of powerplays being awarded. Through the first 16 games, there have been 306 powerplays - just over 19 per game. The average in the 2003-04 regular season was 8.48 man advantages per game.One glaring example was Friday night, when Phoenix and Minnesota combined for 22 penalties in a 3-2 win for the Coyotes. All five goals were scored with the man advantage.Other games have featured even more powerplays. Montreal and Atlanta were whistled for 32 penalties on Sunday, a day after Los Angeles and Anaheim totalled 36 fouls. As you might expect, at least one goaltender wasn't too happy."A whole year on the power play? This is what we're going to get?" Ducks goalie Ilya Bryzgalov wondered in the Los Angeles Times. "A goals-against average of 3.5, and that will be the leader."Officials have been cracking down hard on obstruction, just as the league wants."If you put a stick on a guy, you're going to get called," Stars' defenseman Stephane Robidas told the Dallas Morning News. "They're serious about it right now."Whether the officials keep it up remains to be seen, but Stephen Walkom, the NHL's new director of officiating says the new rules will stick because officials, players, general managers and coaches worked together in designing the new structure."This is a new standard of enforcement on existing rules," Walkom told the Detroit News. "The cliché 'obstruction' is no longer anywhere in the rulebook. We're just focusing on what needs to be improved in the game to create more offense and more offensive opportunities in the game."Every player is going to have a choice: to commit the foul or not to commit the foul. I'm not going to predict how many penalties there are going to be. All I'm going to predict is that our guys collectively are going to go out there and call the standard as they are directed to do."That being said, there are reports that some GMs have already been complaining to NHL executive vice president Colin Campbell about the number of pre-season penalties. Unlike in the past, however, Campbell says he won't tolerate these complaints."It's going to be like: 'Enough is enough. Shut up,'" Campbell told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "We've been directed to do this by everybody, and a lot of those everybodys are the same people who have complained before when penalties were called too much."But this time, because of the lockout, we had the whole year to sink our teeth into it. We discussed it with players, coaches, refs and managers, and this was (the edict) to come down."With that understood, players are starting to realize that, ultimately, it will be up to them to change their habits and stay out of the penalty box."As a defenseman, you have to change everything you were ever taught," Stars defenseman Philippe Boucher told the Dallas News. "You front a player in front of the net and try to check his stick. You play 5-on-5 almost like it's a penalty kill, where you think twice about going to the corner and then hustle back."Some admitted that old habits will be tough to break."Especially in Canada, we've been learning that since we were 5 years old," Kings forward Derek Armstrong told the Times. "It's going to be a big change for a lot of people. But if it betters the game, then the changes will be good.""You have to be fast now," noted Capitals forward Jeff Halpern to the Washington Times. "You used to be able to get by with hooking and holding. Not now. You can't wrap guys up the way it was in the past." Minnesota GM Doug Risebrough agreed that the new rules created a faster pace - which some players are struggling to match."I'd say we had six penalties Friday, and if those players are still making those same penalties in four or five games, they probably can't play in the league," Risebrough told the Star Tribune.Detroit goaltender Manny Legace agreed that the pace created by the new rules made for a very different game."I don't like some of the things, but it's going to free up a lot of opportunities to score," Legace said to the Detroit Free Press. "A fast-paced game -- I thought it was a really fast-paced game."How fast is fast?"This was the fastest exhibition game I've ever seen," Sharks coach Ron Wilson told the Mercury News after a 4-3 win over Los Angeles on Sunday. "It was faster than some regular-season and even some playoff games. That doesn't always translate into goals, but the transition, the up and back, is fun."Capitals GM George McPhee told the Washington Times he was happy with the new on-ice product."Overall, I think all the things that have been done to the game are good for the game," McPhee said. "It just looks better."It's nice to see that players who know how to play the game will be able to excel."</blockquote>

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