Kukla's Korner Hockey
Guy Lafleur And Others On The NHL Game Today
by Paul on 12/04/15 at 02:46 PM ET
Comments (3)
from George Johnson of the Calgary Herald,
The Montreal Canadiens Alumni Tour rolled into Markin McPhail Arena on Thursday evening, here to support the Ability Society of Alberta and WinSport. Among their number were Shutt, Guy Lafleur and Stephane Richer. Between them, the scorers of 1,408 regular-season NHL goals. These gents, needless to add, knew their way around a net the way Sinatra did around a song lyric or F. Scott Fitzgerald around a sentence.
For the iconic Lafleur, there is an equipment issue, yes, but also a philosophical and developmental one.
“First: Instead of talking about increasing the goal size they should decrease the size of the goaltenders’ equipment. But also, it’s the type of game played now. That’s why you don’t see more goals. They get to the red line and they dump it in. It’s a chasing game — all the time. When they have the puck, they get rid of it. Instead of entering the zone and trying to make a play.
“It seems like that’s a lot easier for everybody. For me, as an ex-player, it’s a boring game. You don’t see the pure talent of the individual because they aren’t willing to exploit it. They’re stuck in a system. Most of the teams in the league — with a few exceptions — all look alike.
“The game today lacks creativity. That’s what you need. That’s what people want.”
Filed in: NHL Teams, NHL Talk, | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: guy+lafleur
Comments
That hits the nail on the head.
Games could continue to be 3-2 finals and I think all but a few odd ducks would be happy, if those five goals were largely being scored from talented players doing amazing things in open ice.
For sure.
I don’t agree with him on the league being diluted, as the increased international talent and heightened conditioning (and the fact that players generally don’t smoke like the Flower did back in the day haha) counts for a lot, but good god, the product has lost a lot of flash. I definitely zone out frequently during Kings games
Posted by shazam88 from SoCal on 12/04/15 at 08:01 PM ET
With trapping, teams don’t usually have much of a choice most of the time, so they have to dump it in. 
Posted by bigfrog on 12/04/15 at 09:42 PM ET
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That hits the nail on the head.
Games could continue to be 3-2 finals and I think all but a few odd ducks would be happy, if those five goals were largely being scored from talented players doing amazing things in open ice.
Instead though, we maybe get one goal like that per game, and four that are straight out of Tomas Holmstrom or Dino Ciccarelli’s mold.
Mucking in front of the net is as much a part of hockey as anything, but for me, it’s not the gaudy 50, 60, or even 70+ goal seasons that are missing from the earlier eras of the game; rather, it’s the fact that the Tomas Holmstrom goals are now commonplace instead of specialist, and the slapper from the wing or tic-tac-toe play are now specialist instead of common.
Posted by Nathan from the scoresheet! on 12/04/15 at 03:12 PM ET