from Roy MacGregor of the Globe and Mail,

NHL overcoaching – three on the bench, one upstairs, one breaking down video – has turned hockey on its ear. Once a game played by driving forward toward the opposition net, it is now a game where most attack comes from behind that net.

The obsession with shot-blocking has created a new game where goalies, once usually the smallest and quickest players on the team, are now sought for their size, the theory being that should a puck ricochet through the bodies it will bounce off the giant wearing the oversize equipment.

Howie Meeker thinks, as does Bob Gainey, that going down to block a shot should be a penalty. We completely agree.

By sticking endlessly to “systems,” coaches lose trust in players who freelance, who take it upon themselves to change the game, who try things that don’t always work.

Today’s coaches say they want only “200-foot players,” suggesting that yesterday’s players, Wayne Gretzky and Guy Lafleur, for example, would be stapled to the bench until they learned how to play “the right way.”

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