from Gary Lawless of TSN,

On Monday, he was attending meetings on the Red Wings new dressing room and how to tie in the team’s heritage through photographs and interior design. Holland isn’t just a quirky ex-goalie with four Stanley Cups on his resume as an executive. He’s a hockey renaissance man: thoughtful, expressive and passionate about the sport from an overall perspective, not just based on what works for the Red Wings.

“I think the game’s in great shape in terms of parity and competitiveness. So many of our games come down to the last few minutes and the tension and nervousness is critical and exciting for our fans,” said Holland, over the phone from Detroit, on Monday.

“I’d like to see a little more offence, but not at the expense of close games. So, if the average goals per game is five, and I don’t know what it is, I’d like to see us get to six or seven. But we don’t want the 3-2 game to turn into a 5-2 game. I don’t want to get to seven goals at the expense of competitive balance. If we can find a way to make the 3-2 game a 4-3 game — there’s more offence and it’s still tight and the third period is still competitive and we still get to overtime a lot — I’d like to see that.”

The NHL is averaging 5.3 goals per night this season, at the low end of where it has been for the better part of two decades. In 377 games this season, 97 have been decided by one goal in regulation, 95 by one goal in overtime, 32 by two goals including an empty-net goal and 40 by two goals or more. Holland is right — the games are close.

more