Cam Neely On Bigger Nets: 'Look At The Goalie Equipment First'
The NHL has taken a lot of measures since the 2004-05 lockout to increase scoring and make games faster and more entertaining, including rule changes that curbed clutching & grabbing and created more space for players to move the puck. The most popular idea to increase scoring has been reduction of goalie pads, which have ballooned in bulk in recent years.
But there's a radical new idea that is not only much more of a game-changer than the others, but actually gaining traction with coaches and executives around the league: bigger nets.
Felger & Mazz asked Bruins president Cam Neely Thursday afternoon about the idea, and he is reluctant to make such a major fundamental change - and believes that goalie equipment is still more responsible for the decline of offense.
"[The lack of scoring] has been a concern for the people that love the sport and love to see some offense," said Neely. "We have a lot of creative guys who unfortunately arent getting the opportunities that they did in the '80s and '90s to create more offense...I'd like to really take a harder look at the goalie equipment first, and then take a look at the nets."
Neely believes that goalies have plenty of cutting-edge equipment that can protect them from pucks without taking up so much space. He did say that if there is any problem with the nets it's the height, because goalies today are also bigger and taller than ever before.
The theory of supporters of the bigger nets idea is that goalies are so much bigger and more talented than goalies of the high-scoring '80s, and playing with such bigger pads, that they have outgrown the size of the nets and made it harder to score on them than ever. Players are also coached to block shots and cut off passing lanes as well as any point in league history. Scoring chances remain, but plenty of great shots don't go in because they simply bounced off a pad that shouldn't have been there.
And the solution seems simple: bigger nets = more goals.
Neely sees the benefits of such a change, but called himself a "traditionalist" who would rather see changes made to players than the rink. He admitted that hockey suffers from the same problem with casual audiences as soccer.
"I think the reason [soccer] has a hard time in North America is lack of offense, lack of scoring...At least that's what I hear," he said.
Calgary Flames President of Hockey Operations Brian Burke agrees, saying that the NHL would be "rewriting the record books" if they made the nets bigger.
Listen to the full interview with Cam Neely below.
