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This season in the National Hockey League, not a single player reached the 100-point mark or even the 90-point milestone. Jamie Benn led the league with 87 points, and five players had at least 80. Nine reached 75 or more points.
Last year, there was only one player who reached the 100-point plateau. There were only three that topped 85 points and seven that reached even 80 points.
Mind you, this is in a deliberately sped-up game with the red line removed, rules changed to prevent forecheckers from being held up, the accidental puck-over-the-glass in the defensive zone being an automatic penalty and teams that ice the puck forced to keep the same players on the ice.
What has happened? Teams have adjusted to the rules. Coaches figured it out, tweaked things in their team defensive schemes and the scoring has steadily plummeted again. There's hardly any east-west in today's game because there's so little operating room. Everything is north-south and structured to the Nth degree so that most goals are deflections, rebounds, favorable bounces or counters off turnovers.
Part of the answer for the continued issues team have in scoring goals is all the defensive-minded, shot-blocking heavy systems that clubs employ. That's not just the case in the NHL, of course. It goes on around the world.
There's another factor involved, too.
One of the most obvious changes in hockey over the span of my career has been the goaltending. I'm not just talking about the athleticism and technique of the position, although those have certainly evolved a lot in the last few decades.
For one thing, goalies today tend to be tall men and they seem to be getting bigger and bigger all the time. When I look back to when I was refereeing in the NHL, the league still had a slew of goalies who stood less than six feet tall. Without even thinking too hard about compiling a list, the likes of Dominik Hasek, Mike Richter, John Vanbiesbrouck, Curtis Joseph, Ed Belfour, Grant Fuhr, Bill Ranford and even pint-sized Arturs Irbe had plenty of success despite being what today would be considered undersized goalies.
Nowadays, a goalie who is about 6-foot-1 and 195 pounds is considered an "average" size goalie. More and more, there are goaltenders who are 6-foot-4 or bigger.
Even taking the ever-increasing size of goaltenders into account and given the most changes made to reduce the maximum size of goalie gear, I still think the equipment allowances are way too big. So are the crease dimensions.
Much of the time, even when shooters have a momentary open shooting lane (they close off in a hurry with all the shot blocking nowadays), they still have no net to look at. The goalies and their still-oversized gear leave almost no target, so the only real hope is to try to produce a rebound, get a deflection or else just fire and hope the goalie makes a mistake and it sneaks through the five hole or ticks off the glove or blocker into the net.
To me, this is the number one reason why so many shots are fired high and wide of the net: the target area is just too small.
I am very much in favor of further reduction -- and season-long enforcement -- of goalie gear dimensions. The limits are still too generous to the goalies. By NOT changing them to realistic sizes we have changed the game for the worse yet there is still no shortage of injuries to goalies. Get this particular problem under control and make it both REASONABLE for athletic goaltending. I'm not talking about anything unsafe. I'm talking about something that's fair both to the shooter and the goaltender.
If you are going to shoot low, you'd better get the puck at least 13 inches off the ice, otherwise all you're going to hit is pads or post, not twine. Nowadays, the goalies are getting bigger and bigger. You don't see very many true "saves" made any more. Most everyone is a puck blocker.
There is also an officiating component as well, because we are all in this together. There has to be a happy medium in feeling the flow of the game and calling the penalties that need to be called. Knee-jerk reactions and extreme shifts in direction are never good for the game.
In my opinion, the directives right after the 2004-05 lockout forced officials to call too many ticky-tack penalties that made it unreasonably hard for defenders to defend (and also left defensemen vulnerable to getting crushed by onrushing forecheckers). Have things gone back too far the other way, with a hyper-concern about officials being "too obtrusive" combined with the natural give-and-take adjustments that teams have made in the intervening years? Perhaps.
Some simple-minded folks who love to find an easy scapegoat have pinned much (in some cases, most) of the blame for the scoring decline on the declining number of power plays. In reality, it's a symptom of a larger issue not the cause.
News flash: Constant special teams play often makes for boring hockey in its own right because there's no flow to the game. There's an old adage in officiating that a moving puck is one's best friend (because it means there's much less nonsense going on and the infractions that do occur are more of the no-brainer call variety).
Well, the same goes for hockey in general. Good flow should be the objective.
Incidentally, and i know this is a total non-sequitur, that stupid Flo character from the Progressive Auto Insurance commercials really needs to be retired. Can't turn on a damn hockey broadcast without being inundated with her at every stoppage of play along with those Enterprise Rent-a-Car actors who so unconvincingly profess their love for hockey. I get the sneaking suspicion that most of 'em couldn't tell a wrist shot from a wrist watch.
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Paul Stewart holds the distinction of being the first U.S.-born citizen to make it to the NHL as both a player and referee. On March 15, 2003, he became the first American-born referee to officiate in 1,000 NHL games.
Today, Stewart is an officiating and league discipline consultant for the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) and serves as director of hockey officiating for the ECAC.
The longtime referee heads Officiating by Stewart, a consulting, training and evaluation service for officials. Stewart also maintains a busy schedule as a public speaker, fund raiser and master-of-ceremonies for a host of private, corporate and public events. As a non-hockey venture, he is the owner of Lest We Forget.
Stewart is currently working with a co-author on an autobiography.
Blogger •Former NHL Referee • 
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