Bits and Pieces: PT 3 - The NHL has a ‘small’ problem

Today, in the new and improved NHL (the league is promoting a new five-point plan to improve player safety, don’t ya know) many players are bigger than Eric Lindros (6 ft. 5 in. tall and 228 pounds in the early 1990s), are twice as fast as Normie Ullman used to be in the 1970s and can devour a full hot meal in 60 seconds between shifts.

Inside his protective gear approved by the United States Marines, a power forward at a typical NHL game looks a lot like a military weapon. 


["Let's continue to evolve the game of hockey"]

As well, the average goalkeeper has grown from 4 ft. in height (e.g., Tubby Mullard, 4 ft. 5 in., the 1890 winner of the first Venison Trophy: link below to PT 2) to well over 7 feet tall, with a weight of 400 pounds when fully dressed in protective gear.

This trend toward taller, heavier, and faster players will likely continue for the rest of this century and produce more concussions per game than can be counted on two hands.

So, what can be done to accommodate modern-day NHL players and reduce injuries without slowing down the game?

I’m so glad you asked.

The NHL should continue to evolve their game in much the same way it evolved in the past and adopt the five-player game. One goalie, two forwards, two defenseman, or, a goalie, two forwards, one rover, one defenseman.

Students of the game will know the term ‘rover’ is not a new one. They will also know that reducing the number of players on the ice at one time has worked successfully in the past.

An interesting online article entitled The Evolution of the Game tells us how the number of players on the ice has changed over the years:

“The first recorded occurrence of organized indoor ice hockey took place in Montreal on March 3, 1875. It was played in Victoria Skating Rink, with nine-man sides on a surface that measured 80 by 204 feet.”

You might be thinking, how could so many players find space to maneuver or work their magic?


["Evolve the game with the safety of players in mind": photo GH]

Remember, as I said in an earlier post, the average player was under four feet tall.

The article continues:

“The popularity of the game began to spread, and in 1883 the annual Montreal Winter Carnival featured "the novel game of hockey". The rules for the series said the teams would carry seven men per side and play two 30-minute periods with ten minutes between periods.”

“By 1898 the rules had further standardized. Ice hockey by this time was a seven man game: the goalie, three forwards, a rover (who switched from defense to offense, as the play required), and the point and cover point (the defense included the cover point in front of the point, rather than side by side as they are today).”

Readers may well ask, with all those sticks in the air, did anyone wear a helmet?

As far as I know, three players wore small metal pails upon their heads during a game in the early 1900s (with holes cut out for their eyes), but they soon discovered the pails did more harm than good when they got to spinning around. Pails were retired until someone invented narrow strips of leather.

Sorry, I digress.

“In 1911-12 the position of rover was finally eliminated, making hockey a six-man game per side, and it was decided that players would wear numbers on their sweaters.”

As you can see, the NHL has kept the number of players on the ice unchanged for 100 years, even though during that time the players have almost doubled in size, weight and speed.

Maybe it’s time for the five-player game as I suggested earlier. The safety of individual players would improve - with more space on the ice, more time to react to a charging defenseman - and, the five-man game would likely be faster than today's game.

Don’t like that idea?

I’ve got another one. Stay tuned.

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Please click here to read PT 2 - The NHL has a ‘small’ problem

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