First of all, the battles in front can continue to take place.
They just have to be about position, leverage and pushing not hold,
grabbing and tackling. I know that this is a huge burden on
defensemen who have been taught differently, but we can't give
back. Just ask the players (lockout negotiations) once you give
an inch, they keep taking. If the crackdown is relaxed in front
of the net, it is only a matter of time before the belly-aching old
guard begins to get their way and we see the crackdown cracking
throughout the remaining two hundred feet.



I believe the players will adjust and if they don't we'll see more
power plays, rebound opportunities and goals, and isn't that what this
is all about anyway!



Secondly, as for replay, I'm totally against it. Our game spent
the past six years working on getting our product down under the three
hour marathon that games had become and they did a good job of
it. While replay might solve the diving epidemic as you see it to
be, I'm not in favor of stopping games to allow referees to look at
replays. At that point, where do you stop. Do you start
looking at all penalties? Offside calls? Too many men on
the ice? NO WAY! Have any of you watched how tentative
officials in football have become? They know that everything they
do and call will be seen from a hundred angles and reviewed! Our
game uses replay a great deal more than most realize and that's
great. Mostly on goal calls and that is how it should be.
The human element must remain. It is a game of mistakes.
The team that makes the fewest usually wins. Scoring chances are
usually a result of one players mistake leading to an opportunity for
the opponent. To coin a phrase, "Upon further review,"we
mostly find that the zebras get it right and in my mind it isn't worth
stopping the momentum of the fastest game on the planet to look at a TV
monitor. And I'm in TV!

» In Response To Eklund-Shootouts

» Answer to the Question

» Johnny's Little Rant