New NHL - - 05 - 06

I am sort of a Bruins' fan having been born in and brought up in Bah-st'n.

Truth is, if there's a game on, it'll usually be background noise as I don't closely follow any more.

A Boston fan! Great.

Blackhawks all the way baby. There have been a ton of signings the past few days. If only they would televise more game so that I could actually watch my team play once in awhile.

They better! I think they need to televise more games for hockey to be popular again.

Pittsburgh and the lower teams are looking good now...

Wings.

My money is on The Rangers.

Reading other posts, bermbits starts to get into the spirit of the upcoming season and drops gloves

Okay, it's gonna be Boston! C'mon the rest of you, ya wanna go?

Seriously, aren't there some significant rule changes coming? (e.g. No red line?)

Yeah. I heard a few of them were going to be No red line (which I like), less padding for goalies (which I like), less room behind the goal (no sure if I like), an oval goal(not sure if I like), and no ties (which I don't like).

Yep new rules.

They eliminated two line passing (a.k.a. no red line).

I haven't heard anything about oval nets, but I sure hope that they dont' bring it in!

The shootouts are only for regular season games. In the playoff, teams go through unlimited overtime(until a team win).

One thing that I like, and I hope they implement better, is no obstruction. That means no grabbing, interfering, etc.

The new NHL rules changes can be found here.

Frankly, I thought awarding one point for an overtime loss was stupid. The shootout, however, is monumentally stupid -- or, considering it's the NHL, I should say that it is characteristically stupid. I hate it when a sport uses an entirely different set of rules to break ties; soccer shootouts are stupid, college football tiebreakers are stupid, and now NHL shootouts are stupid. My last, lingering fondness for professional hockey has pretty much evaporated. Good riddance.

lol. Well JoefromChicago, they're not going to implement it in the playoffs. Oh, and thanks for the link.

Soccer shootouts are not applied in regular games, only in championships when there has to be a winner and well you really dont' want to play over 145 minutes of soccer in a game so I see how that is somewhat reasonable. I don't like the shootouts in hockey as well though.

On another note: Gretzky is now officially the new coach of the Phoenix Coyotes.

Bertuzzi reinstated.

Pittsburgh is officially going to kick butts.

Boston fan all the way! Growing up in New England they're all I ever watched!!

I've heard the Bruins are going to allow free admission to children under 12, don't know how true it is. I heard it from a friend who's really happy that he can bring his kids for the price of 1 ticket!

I'm embarrassed to say it, but I'm a NY Strangers fan.

I like the new rules but I think the sport has suffered severe damage. The core fans will return but the fringe fans have already gone to more popular sports like golf and arena football.

Yeah that's what I fear. The NHL should be showing their games on TV in the US to generate more interest (especially in the south), and I think they should advertise more. The free admission OperaGhost talked about is a good bonus for fans.

As for being a NY Rangers fan, it's okay , they were good once!!! They beat the Canucks in that '94 game. I don't get how they can't win with all those good players now though.

Hockey is a "team chemistry" sport. Without all 20 players playing for the same goal, the Cup is unattainable. A team needs guys that will get dirty and muck it up in the corners. That '94 Ranger team had great talent but wasn't going anywhere in the playoffs until they picked up guys like Glen Anderson and Stephan Matteau (MATTEAU! MATTEAU! MATTEAU!) while trading off non-defenders like Garnter and Amonte.

Jagr, Bure, Kasperitis, and Holik and their big salaries don't help the chemistry either. 7 years of not making the playoffs has made me bitter. Though I still watch all the games.

Jagr... did you hear he left the NHL because 7 million dollar isn't enough for him?

Oh man, what I could do with 7 million dollars.