What have they done to the great game of hockey? I used to enjoy watching hockey. True, sometimes it was a little slow, especially when the trap was set up in the neutral zone by one of the teams. This was all part of the game however and even this was to be expected. Hockey ran into trouble when the owners and players couldn't agree on a contract and the players were locked out. As all hockey fans know, there was no hockey played by the National Hockey League last season. I know that I had a hard time finding something else to look at and found nothing that I enjoyed as much.

During the strike was when all the trouble started. The league thought that this would be a good time to mess with the rules. Yes, hockey is one of those sports that is messed with from time to time. Why can't they leave it alone? Some genius in the league thought that he would make it more exciting, like basketball where everyone is running around shooting all the time. I hate watching basketball, if I wanted to watch basketball I wouldn't watch a hockey game, that's silly. Why would someone want to make a sport more like another sport, it just doesn't make sense? "Hey lets make football like bowling." This sounds stupid, doesn't it? It used to be that when a goal was scored, it was unique, something like soccer. Now we have more shots than ever and goals coming from everywhere. It is so busy out there that I am wondering if any goalie can last for a season. The outcome may be that those teams with the most best goalies will be the teams that come out ahead at the end of the season.

So what has happened that has made the game so fast and the goals so plentiful? The ice rink is laid out in such a way that it is divided into three main areas. You have a center portion and the part that is more or less each teams ice that is located on each end. The center portion of the ice was shortened by 4 feet. Because of this it is much harder to play what is know as the trap in the neutral zone. The trap was a kind of defense that caused less shots. The area where the goalies are located, the net, has been moved back 2 feet each making play behind the net harder. Each team's ice has been given two extra feet that was taken from the neutral zone. Passing has been changed. On the center of the ice is a red line and just before you enter a teams zone is a blue line. In the past you were only allowed to pass over one line, the red line counted as one of those lines The red line doesn't count in passing anymore and now you can make a pass from behind your blue line to anywhere just before the other team's blue line. This I don't really hate too much, but it certainly does change the game. If you have someone in the *penalty box and he comes out unnoticed, you can pass to him from almost two thirds of the rink giving him a break away.

Even the movement of goalies has been limited. If they go into the corners and behind the line that runs across the back of their nets, it is a penalty. If they catch a puck out of their goal area and hold on to it, it is also a delay of game penalty. Their equipment has been reduced in size. Even their shirts have limits on how wide they can be from under the arms to the waist. If a player from the other team stands in front of a goal tender, there is really no allowable way of moving him under the new rules. The only thing you can do is wait for him to get the puck and check him and by then it most likely will be too late, he will have taken his shot. He may not shoot however and just remain in front to block the goal tender's view. Already I have seen more goal tenders being run into and run over than I ever have in the past. The goal tender has been sacrificed to make the game faster and higher scoring.

Hockey used to be a sport that had a lot of contact between the players, except for the goal tender. Unless something was a serious violation there was a good chance it might not be called. Now the least little bit of contact seems to bring a penalty. The only exception is a **good check. Touch someone with your stick and you are very liable to get, what is known, as a ***hooking penalty. It has gotten almost laughable as games are being played where most of the time there are not even the full teams on the ice. What fun is watching penalty after penalty? If was fun in the normal course of a game, but like anything else, too much of a good thing becomes frustrating, especially when it's your team that is continuously short handed. A full team on the ice is 5 players plus their goalie. I watched a game the other day where one team had five double penalties against them resulting in 5 two minute rounds of 5 players against 3 players along with numerous other penalties This was not even like a hockey game, it was more like watching a team trying to hang on against superior numbers, this was not fun.

Another rule that was changed which is really crazy, states that now any player shooting a puck over the glass gets a penalty. It used to be only a penalty if the goal tender did this. When it is obvious that a puck goes over the glass and it wasn't intended to, it just shouldn't be a penalty. The powers that be just want to create short handed situations, which they have done ad nauseam. Did anyone in charge ever consider the fact that there were many people out there that liked hockey the way it was? Sometimes changes are made just so some one can leave their stamp on a game. Could this be why some of these changes were made? It is interesting to note that the commissioner came from basketball to hockey. There are a few other changes also that I don't like, such as not being able to ****change your players if you iced the puck. Then there is the new way tie games are decided. Heck why can't they just play additional periods until there is a winner? No, they decided to play an additional 5 minute period with only 4 skaters and a goalie apiece and if the game is still tied then they have a ******shoot out. What does this have to do with playing a good game? It's like saying the baseball game was tied after nine innings so we will play an extra inning with only two outs apiece and if it is still tied we will throw darts to decide the winner. Give me a break!