You’re no fun...Dupont’s blaming the goalie, and here you come in with your sense and logic and other things…

Posted by George James Malik from South Lyon, MI on 11/23/08 at 09:39 AM ET

I would think another reason scoring is up is the face-off always taking place in the defensive zone when a penalty is issued and the no TV timeout when an icing takes place.  Your thoughts?

I agree, even though the goalie equipment was tweaked it has made a lot of difference having the face off in the penalized teams zone.

Posted by PuckHound61 from Speckville USA on 11/23/08 at 09:57 AM ET

I would say both have an effect. There’s an NHL video where they go over a couple of the changes to the pads, and one to the chest protector.

Both of the changes to the pads are ones where I can think of goals this season that very likely could have stemmed from those changes, and certainly the chest protector change makes me think of the imposing figure known to be cast a couple seasons ago by Anaheim’s J.S. Giguere.

Posted by SENShobo from Waterloo, ON on 11/23/08 at 10:07 AM ET

Shots on goal aren’t really up all that much, and save percentages are down. Goaltending across the league doesn’t to appear to have been as good so far this season and would make up maybe half that scoring increase.

Posted by James Mirtle from Toronto on 11/23/08 at 12:55 PM ET

Ken Daniels made an interesting comment during last night’s Detroit/Calgary telecast on FSN.  He said Ken Holland’s take on the higher scoring was because the salary cap has resulted in a lot more younger players in the league—and more younger players = more mistakes = more goals against.

Posted by BobTheZee on 11/23/08 at 01:54 PM ET

Through a rough count (doing it in my head while reading) last year there were 1870 PP goals.

This year through about 20 games league wide there have been 482 power play goals… so it looks like the pace of scoring on the PP is pretty similar.

Honestly, I just think the goalies are playing like junk this year.  I like the more young players = poorer defense argument, that makes sense too.

Posted by HockeyinHD on 11/23/08 at 04:48 PM ET

James, unfortunately the goaltending percentages do not take into account the
extended (epidemic) 5 on 3 ice time this year.  More 5 on 4 time also.
I would add that to Paul’s

I would think another reason scoring is up is the face-off always taking place in the defensive zone when a penalty is issued and the no TV timeout when an icing takes place.  Your thoughts?

Guess I missed

Ken Holland’s take on the higher scoring was because the salary cap has resulted in a lot more younger players in the league—and more younger players = more mistakes = more goals against.

An astute and valid observation from one of Hockeys most recognized deep thinkers.

Posted by HockeyTownTodd from upset when blogs don’t live up to my expectations on 11/23/08 at 04:57 PM ET

I’m pretty sure Marty Turco is the reason goal-scoring is up.  Yep, yep.

There’s a lot of factors, many mentioned here.

1.  Young players, lacking experience and making stupid mistakes (additional nod to the abundance of young DEFENSEMEN.  How many rookie D’s are starting in the NHL right now??).

2.  Icing changes leading to tired defenders (I"d really like to see “goals scored the shift after icing is called” statistic- but my gut feeling is that it’s not that shift but the next, when the team breathes it’s sigh of relief, gets the tired guys on the bench… and then lets in a crap goal… where the increase will be seen, statistically.  Again, just a feeling).

3.  Penalties.  Have you ever seen so many penalties?  Johan Franzen said after a game a few weeks ago, “Well, we were up a couple goals so we knew there were going to be some penalties called...” and didn’t even get a fine for it.  Because that’s the reality of the NHL’s officiating these days.

4.  Goalie pads, schmoalie pads.  These changes weren’t that huge.  As they made them, they were saying, “And we’re going to be going further down the road...”

And there are some more factors I would suggest are playing a role.

A.  We’re another year into the New NHL and in addition to the steadily increasing number of young players, we’re another year into the New NHL rules.  Teams are becoming more and more comfortable with New NHL Hockey and are building their rosters around it.  Guys like Fabian Brunnstrom in Dallas wouldn’t be on the roster regularly as soft as he is now if it was 1998 and he were battling through the clutch and grab- he’d be tearing it up in the AHL for a year or two.  But he’s a scorer, so they give him 2.5 million and can’t afford to sit him.  Additionally, the Wings-Pen march to the cup has inspired teams in a copycat league to try to build with skill instead of the brawn-and-grit that dominated free agent offerings a year back after Anaheim won.  They’re trying to build teams that way and in some cases it’s meaning more goals for and especially against because the teams aren’t up to the task of playing that style of hockey.  Anaheim hockey slows the game down, creates less goals.  Detroit hockey speeds the game up, peppers the net, causes more goals scored. (note: I am a biased Red Wings fan).

B.  Something I’ve not really seen mentioned… Good teams are on good ice.  Name a true contender in the southern half of US?  I’ll spot you San Jose.  Next?

Montreal, NYR, Penguins, Bruins, Devils, Habs, Sabres, Caps, Canes in the east, as of right now?  There’s one southern team.
Sharks, Wings, Canucks, Squaks, Ducks, Wild, Flames, Preds out West?  Sharks, Preds.

The NHL is better in the North, again.  There’s no Dallas or Colorado and their slushy ice.  There’s great ice in Montreal, Boston, etc.  Better ice, better hockey.  Am i way off on this?

Posted by shanetx on 11/24/08 at 10:18 AM ET