from Larry Brooks of The New York Post,
This is the year that the combination of a fourth consecutive season under the zero-tolerance cap and a staggering number of injuries has expanded the NHL’s mushy middle over perhaps two-thirds of the landscape.
The talent keeps getting better. Teams keep getting worse. Parity has finally struck in a league whose agenda has always been to cater to the least common denominator. Except the common denominator is mediocrity.
We can have differing opinions on whether super teams are beneficial. I have always believed that excellence elevates a league. There are examples of individual excellence on YouTube every single day. But it does not translate collectively.
The unyielding cap has prevented general managers from addressing weaknesses. The number of significant injuries and the prevalent use of the Long Term Injury — currently 17 by the count of CapFriendly on Saturday morning — has created a scenario under which multiple AHL players dot nearly every club’s roster.
In a league where you can have a night where, officially, 16 teams win and not one loses, 24 clubs started Saturday with records above NHL .500 even while 15 teams had not won more than half of their games. The new math is the old voodoo arithmetic. Every GM wins! Ticket-price increases are justified! The owners win, too!
continued plus other hockey topics...
The standings are tight because players are so much better so much younger- it takes alot of ineptitude to have a terrible team these days. And I don't understand what could be bad about having more teams than ever having a chance to make the playoffs late into the season- isn't it good for everyone to sell more tickets longer?
hes right about all of this.
Parity gives almost everyone a chance.
Expanding the number of teams also thins the talent pool, leading to fewer quality players per team.
I think just the opposite. The USNDT, USHL and NCAA are cranking out NHL prospects like never before. We're seeing spectacular players from Germany and the Baltics!
Most of the goonery is out of hockey, and the game is all about speed, which opens opportunity for smaller players. The pool of potential players is much larger than it used to be.
Luxury tax.
Larry...a little late to the party. Parity (at least in the standings) has been around for a few seasons now. Sure a couple teams will be better than average and couple of teams will be below average. The rest just form the mucky middle.
I don't think the hockey is any worse, mostly because young players are ready for the NHL sooner and the feeder leagues/juniors are doing a better job of coaching.
We can bitch all we want but this is exactly what the owners want, as many teams as possible fighting for the playoffs up until the end.
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