from Sean McIndoe of The Athletic.

No, this is about the small things we miss. Some of you whippersnappers won’t even know about this stuff, which is half the point, because it’s always fun to teach some punk kid something new.

Sound good? Groovy. Let’s get old.

I miss when we had faceoffs in random locations

How it used to be: You know those nine faceoff dots spread around the ice? They used to be suggestions.

Most of the faceoffs would happen there. But not all of them, because there were certain situations where they could be held somewhere else. For example, if a puck was shot out of play in the offensive zone, and it happened between and behind the dots, then the ensuing faceoff would just be held there instead....

I miss when the officials used to climb the walls to get out of the way

How it used to be: Oh look, here comes the puck. But the official is in the way — what should he do? Jump a few inches in the air? Step to the side? Don’t be silly. He needs to dramatically scale the walls and hang from the top of the glass like he’s just unlocked a new ability in Assassin’s Creed.

Why it changed: In theory, because every NHL building eventually raised its glass to a height that was safer for fans and out of reach of anyone on the ice....

I miss the crusty old goal judges sitting behind the net

How it used to be: I’m not going to turn this into yet another rant against replay, because I promised we wouldn’t talk about anything important. But back in the day, when there was a controversy over whether a goal had gone in, we didn’t have slow motion and the horn of doom and philosophical debates about the parallax effect....

more ($) on all of the above plus additional points...