Ken Dryden's suggestion for making hockey better

[dbilmes]

Schafer might disagree, but Ken Dryden has an interesting take on making hockey a more wide-open game.

[Al DeFlorio]

Schafer might disagree, but Ken Dryden has an interesting take on making hockey a more wide-open game.

Dryden's nailed it.  Just look at any photo of him in a Cornell uniform side by side with one of Leneveu or Galajda.  Dryden had to flash a glove or kick out a pad or swing a stick to make a save.  Today such a move earns oohs and aahs like it's some kind of miracle.  Dryden in pads still looked like a normal human.  As I've written here before, today's goalies look like Bibendum the Michelin man.

[French Rage]

Add more pucks.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

Agree with Ken.  Goalie pads are way too big, so if they have to make the net bigger, so be it. And if they want to increase scoring, repeal the "Gretzky Rule" and have teams skate 4 x 4 during offsetting minors.

And if you want to talk Bibendum, look at the goalies in the indoor lacrosse league.  Those guys are all pads.

[scoop85]

I've noticed this year especially how much congestion there is, limiting the impact of skill. If slightly increasing the net size can have a ripple effect to minimize the congestion, I'm all in favor.

[osorojo]

They call them "goalie pads" for a reason. They are supposed to protect the goalie, not the goal.

[upprdeck]

all for it.. 6 inches all around. wonder if it would require some fixes to the ice making where ever the chilling under the net lives.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

I'd also go back to the rectangular crease instead of the dome shaped one.

[abmarks]

I've noticed this year especially how much congestion there is, limiting the impact of skill. If slightly increasing the net size can have a ripple effect to minimize the congestion, I'm all in favor.

If we really wanted to eliminate the congestion then the ranks all have to get bigger, like Olympic size or even more.  

Players are just so much taller/bigger and faster these days than they were back when they game was first played (or even just compare to the 70s) and the rink dimensions were set.  Today there is effectively so much less space on the ice as a result.

[David Harding]

Schafer might disagree, but Ken Dryden has an interesting take on making hockey a more wide-open game.

...said the thieving giraffe.  
But I actually agree with him.  Dryden's size gave him an edge, but without his quickness he would've gone nowhere.
I would be nervous about hitting a cooling line if I drilled new holes in the concrete under the ice to anchor the wider net.  Engineers get to work.  Once we have flexibility in net size, maybe peewees should have a smaller net.

[Trotsky]

I hate 99% of all new ideas.

I like Dryden's idea.

[osorojo]

Hockey goals should result from the strategy, angles, and quickness of the shooter and the goalie - not their equipment.

[Dafatone]

On one hand, I don't disagree. But I don't think hockey is too low on goals, either.

[Al DeFlorio]

On one hand, I don't disagree. But I don't think hockey is too low on goals, either.

I sure do.  Too easy for a team badly outplayed to hang within a goal and then tie or win on a fluke goal off a knee or skate or strange bounce off a board.

[upprdeck]

Baseball has had some of the same issues with gloves being twice as big as yrs gone by. Not sure how changing plate size would hurt or help the game.

Basketball would be interesting too.. They lower rims for smaller kids but never raise them for older kids.. 11 ft rims would change shooting for sure and make it less of a dunk fest.

soccer uses smaller goals at lower levels, watching so many 0-0, 1-0 games at the highest level.. why not experiment with goals 2-3 ft wider or taller just to see what effect it has on some of the friendlies.

fball went the other way making goal posts narrower, moved them further back as kickers got better.

golf is trying to make courses longer and harder for better players too.