Super-sized Nets?

[Beaner]

from, www.tsn.ca

Report: NHL considering super-sized nets

TSN.ca Staff

3/29/2005

The NHL has developed two prototypes for bigger nets that will be shown to GMs at their upcoming meetings in Detroit, according to a report on The Hockey News website.

According to the report, NHL senior vice-president Colin Campbell told The Hockey News the league will ask GMs to consider two super-sized net designs at their meetings scheduled for April 8-9.

The first new design features goalposts that curve outwards to provide shooters with a larger target. The posts remain six feet apart at the base.

The second new design simply adds two inches in height and width to the traditional rectangle goal.

The league has been looking at way to increase scoring and excitement for some time. Other changes already being considered include smaller goaltending equipment and the use of shootouts the break ties.

"When we were talking about making changes to goalie equipment in the past few years, I had two respected coaches Roger Neilson and Jacques Demers say to me, 'Why dont you just make the nets bigger?'" Campbell told The Hockey News. "Basketball has its three-point play which rewards teams for taking risks on offense. We don't have that. Do you take a long shot late in a game when you know the odds of scoring are very low? No. Instead you drop back and play defense. We need to find a way to reward teams for taking chances on offense to encourage coaches to coach a more offensive style."

[Jovorock]

I would have to see the first proposal to give a opinion but the second with two inches in height and width sounds ok.

[Toswammi]

Change the rules, i dont care, as long as you get good hockey rules. But dont tweak with the net size, ice, etc. Its all just a short term fix before hockey learns to cheat with it. If they keep this up, hockey in 20 yrs will not resemble hockey today, and i have a serious problem with that. Here is a rule idea, start calling goalies with interference behind the net when they step out infront of the other skaters, or better yet, allow contact with the tenders. I figure this will keep them closer to the crease, and forchecking will lead to more scoring oppurtunities.

[grumphy]

My solution would be to go back a few years and make the goalie free game if he leaves the crease-------out of the crease he is trated like a forward. would nearly eliminate the behind the net garbage

[ihlemic10]

I like the fair game solution. I saw a game where the goalie comes way out of the Crease to play the puck, passes it away, has incidental collison while a shot was being taken on net. The goal was disallowed and the player who collided got a minor. I do like the AHL's goaltender play lines becuase if the goalie is out of net people generally give him room becuase they don't want to "Interfere" with him and the goalie gets to pass it out of the zone. I would think that they would be less worried about Goalies since they have the most pads on.

[grumphy]

I played goal in the old days, and believe me you always had to take into consideration as to wether you could beat the forward coming in to the puck, because if you didn't you got nailed. At times it still made for some intresting plays, but no tender in his right mind ever cosidered going to the corner and trying to set up plays That would have been intresting padding or not.
I always found the padding made you something similar to an overturned turtle after getting hit.

[Beaner]

I played goal in the old days, and believe me you always had to take into consideration as to wether you could beat the forward coming in to the puck, because if you didn't you got nailed. At times it still made for some intresting plays, but no tender in his right mind ever cosidered going to the corner and trying to set up plays That would have been intresting padding or not.
I always found the padding made you something similar to an overturned turtle after getting hit.

Maybe they should make the goalies of today go back to the old leather style pads of the 80's and then they can make them as big as they want to. They might not be able to move, but they could be big.

[grumphy]

good one , have them try the old horsehair filled ones. Man you got them a little wet and you had your work cut out for ya

[smackitsakic]

Pads are light, pads are insanely light. It's not the 48 inch width of the net that is the issue, it's the fact that 2 - 11 inch pads cover nearly half of the bottom of the net (nearly the top too as most pads are past the 30 inch mark). The goalie doesn't move and he has more than a 50% chance of making the save. Back in the day if the goalie didn't move the odds of him actually getting hit by the puck were slim to none. They were 120 pounds with 4 inch wide pads. So, that's a bit exaggerated, but you get the idea.
The issue is NOT the net sizes, the issue is the war-ready players known as goalies. You're wearing $4,000 in equipment that is practically bullet proof and large enough to fully stock a small house. But, what do i know, maybe changing the ice color and making the lines thicker is the solution. I'm just a fan.
TSN was showing some kind of net contraption on SportsCenter today where it was wider on the top and narrow on the bottom. I guess this would preclude the goalie from being able to fully hug the post. Pretty soon they will be tossing the idea around of using soccer nets with two goalies. Keep the game the same, just tweak it a bit. Sigh.

[fightstrap50]

First of all the net is 6 feet wide, not 48 inches wide. it is however 48 inches tall. So 22 combined inches of goal pads is nowhere near half the width of the net. also if you look at the pads they have a definet arc to them and follow you foot outwards, so if you started at the tip of the toe padding and followed the entire arc and shape of the pad, you might get 30 inches. but as for straight vertical height more around 26 to 28 inches tall. Also keep in mind that there are a lot of very tall goalies out there who require bigger or taller pads to accomidate for leg lengths ect. so the total combined length of the pads across the bottom of the net could be 56 inches wide. and thats without any five hole at all. the net is 72 inches wide. thats 16 inches of open ice with pads completely flat in the butterfly position. Which is another reason for low scoring, as the goalies today are learning it from a young age and are becoming very succesfull at it. I like the 2 inches higher and 2 inches wider idea if anything at all. GO ICE GO!!!