Luongo threatens retirement

[Milo Meningocele]

I haven't seen this talked about on the boards, didn't know if anyone read it:

Link to story

Yeah, the NHL has definitely already tinkered with the game beyond excess--but if love of the sport and the zillions of dollars he's getting isn't enough to keep him around, then good riddance to the little diva. Could be just hot air, but I'd like to see his bluff called.

[Don]

and u blame the guy? i mean c'mon, you want to be the best you can be and if they keep tying the hands of the goalies, he cant effectively do his job.

[lets_go_red]

This is biased coming from a goalie, but the NHL would lose a fan in me if they went bigger with the nets. I personally like the lower scoring defensive/goaltending battles...those are the best, it makes a goal worth more in effort and work, hockey should not be basketball....thats just not how the game is supposed to be played.

[Maz]

I don't think he'd be the only one to want to retire if they use bigger nets. I dont know much at all about business, but I'm sure that if alot of people do retire/move to other leagues it creates quite the dilemma for Bettman. Either screw up the game more and lose star players, or leave it alone and/or change some stuff back and keep those players, and use money to make the sport popular by marketing it rather than changing it. I also don't understand the statement about declining scoring ...hasn't it been proven over the past two years that the rule changes alone improved scoring?

[Milo Meningocele]

and u blame the guy? i mean c'mon, you want to be the best you can be and if they keep tying the hands of the goalies, he cant effectively do his job.

It's not that I want to see the goals enlarged--I don't. But if every goalie is playing in the same size net, I don't see an issue. The numbers may inflate, but the best goalies will still be the best goalies. Sports always tinker with rules, and with it the numbers and people's perception of them adjust. In baseball, a 4+ ERA used to be not so hot--now it's considered pretty reasonably good.

[Don]

a pitcher can adjust to a smaller strike zone, a goalie cant grow longer arms to make glove saves with a bigger net, a bigger net puts him and all other goalies at a physical disadvantage. the biggest example of this happening in another league is when they moved the field goal posts to the back of the endzone instead of the front (cant remember the year). this just forced the offense to play differently, theres no real way for goalies to adjust to bigger nets, so i dont blame him for retiring if they do that.

[-Helix-]

and u blame the guy? i mean c'mon, you want to be the best you can be and if they keep tying the hands of the goalies, he cant effectively do his job.

tying the hands of the goalies by actually making them have to do something?

goalies actually having to use their SKILL instead of their size? perish the thought!

Luongo wouldnt have much to lose if he did retire considering he probably wouldn't be able to keep up with the GOOD goalies anyway and it wouldnt be long before he was down on an AHL roster. he's just afraid of being uncovered for a goalie that depends on his size.

[NJTank]

Bigger nets would be a huge mistake 1-0 games are exciting to me so what theres not enough goals, if they dont like 1-0 games then I dont want them as fans.

[WJMorris3]

What they could really do to increase excitement is to completely eliminate overtime, regular season and playoffs. A tie game in the playoffs would simply be replayed. Would bring much excitement to the end of regulation in a tied playoff game.

[Fred T. Jane]

What they could really do to increase excitement is to completely eliminate overtime, regular season and playoffs. A tie game in the playoffs would simply be replayed. Would bring much excitement to the end of regulation in a tied playoff game.

Because nothing says fun like a couple of Best-of-Sevens turning into some Best-of-Thirteens in the first round of the playoffs, much less a Stanley Cup Finals that lasts a month and a half because one side continues to sit on a tie in order to get a replay.

[DDR]

What they could really do to increase excitement is to completely eliminate overtime, regular season and playoffs. A tie game in the playoffs would simply be replayed. Would bring much excitement to the end of regulation in a tied playoff game.

That's an awful idea. And, you may be on crack, because overtime is the most exciting part of games.

[Milo Meningocele]

a pitcher can adjust to a smaller strike zone, a goalie cant grow longer arms to make glove saves with a bigger net, a bigger net puts him and all other goalies at a physical disadvantage. the biggest example of this happening in another league is when they moved the field goal posts to the back of the endzone instead of the front (cant remember the year). this just forced the offense to play differently, theres no real way for goalies to adjust to bigger nets, so i dont blame him for retiring if they do that.

You didn't see a bunch of pitchers quitting when they lowered the mound, plugged in the DH or juiced the balls.

[Milo Meningocele]

Sorry, double post.

[Milo Meningocele]

Computer issues, sorry about that.

[rams80]

As a point of clarification...Is Luongo the one who had blast shields (in terms of size) for pads until the NHL cracked down on that as well?

Unfortunately, us Yankees want to see scoring, so the NHL is going to probably continue to take away advantages from the goalie. However, as all goalies will face the same handicaps, they can adapt.

[Brass]

The NHL has already done a bunch of stupid things to change the game, so why not this?

[jkrdevil]

and u blame the guy? i mean c'mon, you want to be the best you can be and if they keep tying the hands of the goalies, he cant effectively do his job.

It's not that I want to see the goals enlarged--I don't. But if every goalie is playing in the same size net, I don't see an issue. The numbers may inflate, but the best goalies will still be the best goalies. Sports always tinker with rules, and with it the numbers and people's perception of them adjust. In baseball, a 4+ ERA used to be not so hot--now it's considered pretty reasonably good.

Not necessarily bigger nets will give the goaltenders who already push the limit of pad size even more of an advantage over goaltenders who don't. In essence bigger nets will punish the goaltenders the league doesn't want to punish and give kind of a reward to the goaltenders they want to punish (as those goalies will have a bigger advantage). Going to bigger nets probably will have unintended consequences the league won't want.

They need to trim down the goaltending equipment some more by limiting the height of the leg pad and height of the chest protectors. To me the tall leg pads are the biggest problem as a goalie can just drop into the butterfly and cover the 5 hole with the pads. Reducing the height of the pads won't put them in harms way. Look at a goalie like Marty Broduer who wears probably the smallest pads in the league. He plays 70+ games a year and is hardly injured. Plus he is still able to stop the puck effectively. Just take a look of this picture of Broduer from earlier this week and compare to other goaltender and the different in pad size. This is the size the pads should be.

[OnWis97]

I understand that sometimes "the game" changes: The distance of the 3-point line, the placement of the goal posts, the height of the pitchers mound, etc.

And if the NHL needs change, then so be it. I don't know where the line is between what is OK to change and what should not be touched, but for me it occurs sometime before changing the size of the goals. To me this is too much of a change to the integrity of the game. I cannot quantify it...it's like porn--"I know it when I see it." I can live with making the goalie pads smaller, just as I can live with moving the 3-point line around, but not with changing the size of the hoop. That messes with the integrity.

As many here said before, creating more goals does not make it better. It is creating more scoring chances that is key. The two line pass rule change, for example, can make it a better game.

So while most of us understand that enlarging the goals would mess with the integrity of the game and would not make it a better game (and would turn me off a bit), the NHL has to do it. It's simple business. People will watch more if there are four goals a period instead of four goals a game.

Sure it won't be better or more exciting. There won't be more action or great offensive skill on display. But the lamp will be lit more. And suddenly, the interest will creep up.

[jr79]

Shrink the pads a bit. Their only legitimate purpose is to protect the goalkeeper from injury so they shouldn't extend beyond the dimensions of his legs really.

[Luigi74]

a pitcher can adjust to a smaller strike zone, a goalie cant grow longer arms to make glove saves with a bigger net, a bigger net puts him and all other goalies at a physical disadvantage. the biggest example of this happening in another league is when they moved the field goal posts to the back of the endzone instead of the front (cant remember the year). this just forced the offense to play differently, theres no real way for goalies to adjust to bigger nets, so i dont blame him for retiring if they do that.

You didn't see a bunch of pitchers quitting when they lowered the mound, plugged in the DH or juiced the balls.

If they made home plate smaller alot of them would quit.