loss in DET

Still, I thought the Kings looked pretty good against the current best
team in hockey. I'm cheered. Frolov's steal and goal to tie it 4-4:
this guy continues to amaze w/his talent. Is Alexander Frolov in the
Top 5 Most Underrated Players in the NHL? Yea, I think so.

For the most part, I think the new rules make the game more exciting.
Fuck the shoot-outs though. I could see how the hard-core NHL hockey
purists (bless you all, I've no bone to pick w/ya) might object to the
fairly radical changes, though.

It seems like every King loss this year so far they blew a 2+ goal lead
pretty late. The new rules can bite ya in the ass, no doubt.

The changes in the NHL this year seem more extensive than when the
American League adopted the DH rule in baseball, or even when the NBA
allowed zone defense or the NFL instituted the 2-point conversion.

All driven by economics.

-rmjon23 en Los Angeles

"rmjon23" <rmjon23.RemoveThis@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1131626944.174715.311030@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Still, I thought the Kings looked pretty good against the current best
> team in hockey. I'm cheered. Frolov's steal and goal to tie it 4-4:
> this guy continues to amaze w/his talent. Is Alexander Frolov in the
> Top 5 Most Underrated Players in the NHL? Yea, I think so.
>
> For the most part, I think the new rules make the game more exciting.
> Fuck the shoot-outs though. I could see how the hard-core NHL hockey
> purists (bless you all, I've no bone to pick w/ya) might object to the
> fairly radical changes, though.
>
> It seems like every King loss this year so far they blew a 2+ goal lead
> pretty late. The new rules can bite ya in the ass, no doubt.
>
> The changes in the NHL this year seem more extensive than when the
> American League adopted the DH rule in baseball, or even when the NBA
> allowed zone defense or the NFL instituted the 2-point conversion.
>
> All driven by economics.
>
> -rmjon23 en Los Angeles
>

The Detroit game was exciting, and I'm glad the Kings didn't just pack it in
after they got down two goals late. It was a bit of a downer seeing two
ex-Kings, Lilja and Lang, combine on the OT gamewinner, but at least the
team earned a valuable point in the standings for their effort (though see
below -- I'm not really on board with the current point scoring system).

What I like best about the new rules is the fact that the skill players are
now much more free to show their stuff without being clutched, grabbed and
stifled to death. Scoring is up about 25-30%, which puts it somewhere in
line with the 1980s and early 1990s -- IMHO the most entertaining era of NHL
hockey since I've been watching. No lead of three goals or fewer is really
safe any more. I think that's a good thing, as long as the pendulum doesn't
swing too much farther in the direction of offense. Right now there appears
to be a fairly optimal balance.

I'm actually in favor of the shootouts (regular season only -- never in the
Stanley Cup playoffs of course), but would like to see the points system
revised as follows:

Regulation/OT win = 3 pts.
Shootout win = 2 pts.
Shootout loss = 1 pt.
Regulation/OT loss = Nada

This way the impact of the shootout on the standings would be somewhat
mitigated, and every game would be worth exactly the same number of points,
unlike the system currently in place, where thanks to the "pity point"
awarded for OTLs, some games are worth a total of three points while others
are worth only two. In my view, this compromises the integrity of regular
season competition to a certain degree.

Rick