Connor McDavid is probably the most exciting player to watch in the history of hockey and there’s not much that can slow him down – except maybe a couple of rules.
A plethora of NHL stars were down at media day in New York last week and ESPN’s Emily Kaplan was there for a story on potential rule changes in the NHL. She asked 30 different NHL stars for their opinion on what rule change would be best for the NHL. All thirty had pretty interesting answers (With many of them saying that they should be allowed to go to the Olympics), but McDavid may have given the most in-depth answer.
His suggestion is to bring back the red line (re-introducing the two-line pass).
“I feel like everyone says to put the red line back in. Just because teams are now -- they just trap. They just sit back.
Put the red line back in and everyone has to come back and regroup and build speed and come through the neutral zone. That could either help it or completely hinder it because now you just can't get to the neutral zone anymore. I don't really know what the answer is, but just find a way to make that neutral zone easier.
Nowadays teams just throw up the 1-3-1 or the 4 and you just have to chip in every time and it gets kind of boring to watch.”
We really have no idea how effective this would be. Of course, the league was hoping to reduce trapping, but it seems to have come back.
Last year in the playoffs, that became a big topic as the Senators advanced through the playoffs, because they were very effective in that counter attack style. We’re not sure that’s ever going to disappear from the game because if you’re faced up against a stronger opponent, you’ll always have a better chance of winning by limiting scoring chances on both ends and hoping some of the breaks go your way.
Only the best teams will consistently win in a high octane game and not everybody in the league has that kind of talent, so most coaches will lean to discipline defence. After all, the most entertaining thing for the home side is winning.
