How fast were Voracek and Kronwall moving? Crosby and Steckel?
Nothing will totally eliminate concussions/injuries. The idea is to REDUCE the amount of injuries.
If a two cars collide going 5 mph each, you might or you might not get hurt. As the speed of the cars increase, so does the chance and severity of injury.
The concussion talk is smoke and mirrors. Bunching up the neutral zone goes against every argument and form of logic regarding the concussion problem.
As someone who thinks this could very well make things worse in terms of player safety, I don't agree with this, really. With a red line, you'll see a hellova lot less D on IR, because they won't be getting crushed by someone at top speed on every dump. It's everyone else who's being asked to take suckerpass after suckerpass.
This better not happen, ever. It makes trapping SO much easier, and really ruins the flow of the game. It's not like many concussions have been coming off guys streaking up the middle to receive 2-line passes anyways, most of them have been from hits along the boards or during established plays in either zone. I don't think bringing back the 2-line pass rule would significantly reduce concussions, but it WOULD make the game significantly more boring.
One of the worst rules in league history...just...no, for the love of God, NO!
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“The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile, but that it is indifferent. If we can come to terms with this indifference and accept the challenges of life within the boundaries of death, our existence as a species can have genuine meaning and fulfillment. However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.” - Stanley Kubrick
Just before the lockout, coaches just jammed up the middle. I don't know what "creativity" Yzerman or Dan Boyle saw in
-bring the puck up to your own blueline
-get caught in the trap at the red line
-(try and draw a penalty)/(dump it in the corner and lose the race because nobody has enough speed)/(dump it in the corner and make a linechange)/(give it to Gomez {no, I'm not kidding} because he was the one player in the league who was immune to getting jammed up in the NZ)
Which is all that ever happened at even strength. You lived and died on the first goal, which was usually a special teams goal. What a cerebral and creative way to play the game.
So the same old guys who are always preaching "players don't respect eachother these days" are willing to give the same players even less room to operate, and even more opportunities to hammer on eachother. Brilliant. You don't need to be going full speed to turn someone's lights out. The Phaneuf's and Kronwall's of the world should have fun in this new old league.
I just wonder what the league will do when they have their half speed game, but the number of concussions don't go down or even level off, but go up. What then? Just keep suspending the **** out of everyone until the players "respect eachother" again, or will they let obstruction back in, and slow the game right down to nothing again. Given hockey's track record, I tend to think they'll go with the latter. After that, it won't be long before every team in the league is employing 260 pound goontards who are water skiing all over the good players, and completely ruin the game again.
I just don't even like hearing "red line". I've seen that hockey before, and I won't watch it again.
no, lets not adjust the padding so its softer during collisions lets eliminate the speed and scoring of the game and hope everyone enjoys watching the chess match of 2 teams trapping in the neutral zone and waiting to see which one makes a stupid mistake first.
it will be a 5 on 5 tennis match without the grunting and where getting it by the other team results in icing rather than points.
One of the worst ideas that the media is trying to stir up. IIRC, the red line was dangerous because breakout players would curl towards the center and get lined up in the lane by a big D. Stretch pass was one of the best changes the last lockout made
I'm perfectly okay with adding the red line back in as long as they crack down on the ridiculous interference/obstruction/holding nonsense going on all the time. Remember how this was supposed to be a 'zero tolerance' area? What a joke.
Is there actual evidence that removing the red line was increasing scoring anyway? Not other changes like the trapezoid, the tag up offsides, larger offensive zones, etc? Not to mention the crease rule a few years before.
I think it was originally a good idea, but since it's evolved completely into stretch passes and long zone entry tip-ins I see no real justification for keeping the red line out of play. By the way, none of this has actually stopped trap-style systems from showing up again, and it's largely because players are getting away with the aforementioned interference/obstruction/holding and such on a regular basis.
Just before the lockout, coaches just jammed up the middle. I don't know what "creativity" Yzerman or Dan Boyle saw in
-bring the puck up to your own blueline
-get caught in the trap at the red line
-(try and draw a penalty)/(dump it in the corner and lose the race because nobody has enough speed)/(dump it in the corner and make a linechange)/(give it to Gomez {no, I'm not kidding} because he was the one player in the league who was immune to getting jammed up in the NZ)
Which is all that ever happened at even strength. You lived and died on the first goal, which was usually a special teams goal. What a cerebral and creative way to play the game.
Now imagine what that will look like with a puck possession team like Detroit. They'll just pass the puck back and try breaking out again. And again. Some riveting hockey coming up... It'll be like Sweden 20 years ago, Elitserien teams and their national team.
