matter2003 Posted November 11, 2018 Report Posted November 11, 2018 With a league average of 3.11 goals per game, scoring is at its highest level in over 20 years. Sabres are pretty much exactly at league average but leaps and bounds better than last year. Whats caused the sudden goal explosion? Any thoughts? Quote
inkman Posted November 11, 2018 Report Posted November 11, 2018 This definitely has a hand in it https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/2018/09/29/nhl-goalie-equipment-continues-to-shrink-premium-on-scoring/37984165/ 2 Quote
R_Dudley Posted November 11, 2018 Report Posted November 11, 2018 23 minutes ago, inkman said: This definitely has a hand in it https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nhl/2018/09/29/nhl-goalie-equipment-continues-to-shrink-premium-on-scoring/37984165/ Yes, I do believe this is the main reason although I also think the shift to the fast skating 5 players activated all over the ice model has contributed as well. By that I mean I see more defense men then ever before jumping into the plays in offensive zone. That style worked for some of the recent Stanley cup winners and that is now being copied for its success. So more nimble defense men vs the lumbering Dion Phenuf's of the world working as a five man unit all over the ice. It is definitely a reason the Sabres have been better. 1 Quote
woods-racer Posted November 11, 2018 Report Posted November 11, 2018 (edited) The slashing of the hand penalties, holding calls and hooking penalties all seem to be called more liberally allowing shooters to get shots they couldn't before and they're in more dangerous areas on the ice. The NHL may get this right. Edited November 11, 2018 by woods-racer 2 Quote
Stoner Posted November 11, 2018 Report Posted November 11, 2018 Thanks, matter. I was thinking about looking this up. The NHL seems to have approached the problem conservatively, as is their wont. They took a bunch of small steps, but maybe they've all added up. Besides what woods said, there's also the faceoff change to have the defending player always put his stick down first (previously road team did) and no timeout after icing. More: https://www.nhl.com/news/analysis-rules-changes-could-create-more-scoring/c-730220 Quote
SwampD Posted November 11, 2018 Report Posted November 11, 2018 50 minutes ago, woods-racer said: The slashing of the hand penalties, holding calls and hooking penalties all seem to be called more liberally allowing shooters to get shoots they couldn't before and they're in more dangerous areas on the ice. The NHL may get this right. I think that that has had the greatest impact. Quote
GASabresIUFAN Posted November 11, 2018 Report Posted November 11, 2018 Smaller goalie equipment, smaller faster and better skilled players, and more penalties called on players who obstruct these skilled players and you have a recipe for more scoring. This result was the goal of the rule changes dating back to the first lockout. Frankly the game is more fun this way. Quote
Andrew Amerk Posted November 12, 2018 Report Posted November 12, 2018 Beyond what’s already been mentioned, I’d also speculate that the decline in fighting has helped. Not having 2-3 goons per team now instead means 2-3 players that can potentially score. 1 Quote
Georgia Blizzard Posted November 12, 2018 Report Posted November 12, 2018 They need to continue to enforce as safety allows smaller goalie equipment. Longer term, I'd love to see them expand the ice size to the international dimensions, too. Quote
pi2000 Posted November 12, 2018 Report Posted November 12, 2018 (edited) Smaller chest protectors... finally. I've been saying it for years... if they want to increase scoring, reduce the ginormous chest protectors. Goalies need to compensate by staying taller in the net, coming out more to challenge, which create other types of opportunities on rebounds, etc.. And they want smaller catching gloves soon too... Edited November 12, 2018 by pi2000 Quote
matter2003 Posted November 12, 2018 Author Report Posted November 12, 2018 On 11/11/2018 at 9:50 AM, woods-racer said: The slashing of the hand penalties, holding calls and hooking penalties all seem to be called more liberally allowing shooters to get shots they couldn't before and they're in more dangerous areas on the ice. The NHL may get this right. Until the playoffs when all of that goes away again? Quote
PalmTreeMafia Posted November 12, 2018 Report Posted November 12, 2018 5 hours ago, Andrew Amerk said: Beyond what’s already been mentioned, I’d also speculate that the decline in fighting has helped. Not having 2-3 goons per team now instead means 2-3 players that can potentially score. That's a shame. I kind of miss the goons and the fighting. Quote
woods-racer Posted November 12, 2018 Report Posted November 12, 2018 38 minutes ago, matter2003 said: Until the playoffs when all of that goes away again? I hope not. But we'll see. Quote
Weave Posted November 13, 2018 Report Posted November 13, 2018 Interesting that the title says scoring at highest level since 95-96. That timeframe was ruled by New Jersey and the trap. It was the dead puck era. Crazy that the scoring got worse after that. Quote
Taro T Posted November 13, 2018 Report Posted November 13, 2018 47 minutes ago, Weave said: Interesting that the title says scoring at highest level since 95-96. That timeframe was ruled by New Jersey and the trap. It was the dead puck era. Crazy that the scoring got worse after that. The season before the lockout that preceded it pretty much spawned the dead puck era (Hasek's unthinkable sub-2.00 GAA came in '93-'94, but that was still at the very beginning of it. The hockey was nowhere nearly as bad mid-90's as it was when Calgary lost to Tampa in '03. Quote
GASabresIUFAN Posted November 13, 2018 Report Posted November 13, 2018 3 hours ago, Taro T said: The season before the lockout that preceded it pretty much spawned the dead puck era (Hasek's unthinkable sub-2.00 GAA came in '93-'94, but that was still at the very beginning of it. The hockey was nowhere nearly as bad mid-90's as it was when Calgary lost to Tampa in '03. Not only the trap but the butterfly goaltenders from Patrick Roy to Hasek took away the bottom part of the net and eliminated a significant amount of scoring. Then the goalies got huge to cover the entire net and then the equipment got even bigger. Is it really hard to believe that scoring was worse in the 2000's plus then it was in the dead puck era. Quote
matter2003 Posted November 14, 2018 Author Report Posted November 14, 2018 Scoring has dipped slightly below 2005-06 now, by .01 goals per team per game...look at the 7 years prior to the lockout where 5 of the 7 years had team averages under 2.7 goals per game...then it went up coming out of the lockout for a few years and it was heading right back towards that again for the last 7 years... Notice the save percentages in the .880-.895 range for a long time in the 90's and then we saw them start creeping up all the way to .910 and .915 the past 8 or 9 years...even this year is still relatively high in comparison at .909 which means some of the explanation is that teams are taking more shots on goal than prior years and that perhaps that might be most of the difference rather than the equipment... Quote
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