Goals and gate receipts have increased. Fighting has decreased, and ties have disappeared altogether.
Yet, as the NHL season hits the quarter pole, not everyone is enamored with the radically altered game.
An informal survey conducted Thursday in the Penguins' dressing room quickly produced two men who preferred the old league. Not surprisingly, both make their living trying to prevent goals.
"It's not a man's game anymore," said defenseman Lyle Odelein.
Veteran goaltender Jocelyn Thibault, whose season goals-against average is bloated to nearly twice his career mark, responded emphatically to a questioner.
"Do I like the new game⢠No," Thibault said. "I liked it better before. Right now, you get a free pass to the net."
Of course, Thibault knows that for many fans, watching players get a free pass is far more palatable than watching them try to work though a series of barricades that could stop a Sherman Tank.
Mario Lemieux and his offensive-minded brethren across the league are thrilled (unless they're getting whistled on a ticky-tacky interference call with 18 seconds left in regulation, that is).
"There's a lot more open ice," Lemieux said. "A lot more flow."
The painful, steady decline in scoring bottomed out in 2003-04, when NHL teams combined for just 5.14 goals per game, lowest since 1955-56 and a shade above what the 1992-93 Penguins averaged all by themselves.
This season, scoring is up to 6.3 goals per game. It has been a decade since the NHL finished a season averaging six goals per game.
"The league kind of needed this," Thibault admitted. "I think it was the right thing to do."
Stephen Walkom agrees. The Moon Township resident and long-time NHL referee was hired before the season as the league's senior vice president and director of officiating.
That's a fancy way of saying he's responsible for making sure referees enforce the league's new standard on obstruction - the new standard being a zero-tolerance policy on every form of it.
That, combined with a bigger offensive zone, a smaller neutral zone, shrunken goalie equipment and legalized two-line passing, among other things, has resulted in scoreboards lighting up like pinball machines.
"I think it's great to see the great players unshackled and allowed to play without being hooked and held all over the ice," Walkom said. "It's liberating the game."
The numbers are startling:
Even more telling:
In other words, the New Jersey Devils don't have teams dead to rights anymore when they grab a 1-0 lead at the five-minute mark.
The increased "flow" has created a chain reaction, influencing everything from goaltender safety (they're hurting) to roster-building (premium on skaters) to the length of players' shifts (generally shorter, because players are skating more).
And that inspires a number of questions, beginning with the biggie: Will it last?
Previous attempts at "opening up the game" have stalled after promising starts. Those who watched the Flyers-Penguins game on Wednesday might wonder if it's happening again. After all, they saw numerous uncalled infractions on both sides, most notably Flyers defenseman Derian Hatcher twice cracking Penguins rookie Sidney Crosby across the skull with high sticks.
Crosby wasn't pleased, but he credits the referees for being "consistent" all season.
Walkom guarantees the refs will stay vigilant. He also promises they will make mistakes. He and his staff keep a close watch on the league's 68 referees, giving each a DVD of every game worked.
"Zero tolerance is hard, because there's always situational contact," Walkom said. "But I've sensed that our guys are on-course. We just all need to appreciate that the learning curve for us and the players had to be accelerated."
At least five other questions have arisen:
1. Too much special teams?
Toronto coach Pat Quinn and Philadelphia general manager Bob Clarke are among those who think so. Quinn was fined for critical comments, saying 5-on-5 play had gone the way of the "dodo bird."
Clarke made similar comments to The Hockey News.
"For 75 years, it's been a 5-on-5 game," he said. "The importance of that has diminished with seven or eight power plays per team."
So far, power-play chances are up by nearly four per game (12.8 to 9.2), compared to this point in the 2003-04 season. Penguins veteran Mark Recchi doesn't have a problem with that --a lot of people prefer watching a power play to a series of neutral-zone turnovers - but says the referees need to be more consistent.
"Obviously, you get certain refs who let more of the physical play go and call the hooking and that, which I think is the way to go," Recchi said. "Some of them, unfortunately, are taking away the physical part of the game and not allowing the good hits and maybe the battles in the corners. It's a real fine line."
Those who feared games would drag should know that the average length has increased by only 180 seconds, to 2 hours, 21 minutes.
2. Did the NHL go too far in legislating against goalies?
A lot of goalies feel that way. For starters, their equipment was reduced by 11 percent, and they were confined to a limited area behind the net where they could legally handle the puck.
More significantly, hard-charging forwards now have a clear path to the goal mouth, a situation that has contributed to a dramatic rise in goalie injuries.
A Hockey News survey this week showed that 17 goalies were injured in the season's first month, compared to only eight the first month in 2003-04.
An interesting by-product of that, and undoubtedly a major factor in the increased scoring and reduced save percentage (from .911 at the end of 2003-04 to .897 through the first month) is that 19 rookie goalies saw action in October.
"Goalies are definitely more exposed to injury," Thibault said.
Walkom doesn't see a problem.
"If (a referee) sees a player has intentionally put himself into a goalie, he'll call a penalty," Walkom said. "But it's a fast, dangerous game. That's part of the attraction."
On Thursday, goaltenders finally got a voice on the league's competition committee when New Jersey's Martin Brodeur was added.
3. Whatever happened to fighting?
It was already on the decline. Now, it's beginning to disappear, which should please those who consider it a blight on the sport.
Fighting majors are down 42 percent from this point in the 2003-04 season. Walkom claims there was no intent to curb fighting, though the NHL instituted a policy of slapping a game misconduct and an automatic one-game suspension on a player who instigates a fight in the final five minutes. It also fines a coach $10,000 in such situations.
The suspension length and coach's fine double for each additional incident.
"I think a spontaneous fight is very exciting," Walkom said. "But with the speed of the game now, you better be able to play."
Given the reduction in fighting, many Penguins fans were no doubt perplexed to see their team sign not one but two enforcer-types. The club is spending a total of $1.45 million on Andre Roy and Ryan VandenBussche this season.
4. Is there enough hitting?
Walkom says yes and figures it will increase.
"A lot of people need to know that hitting is still allowed in hockey," he said.
Many players, though, have backed off because they fear getting penalized. Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik said players weren't sure exactly what was legal and what wasn't early on.
"It felt like you couldn't hit anymore, they were calling so much stuff," he said. "Now, it's been all stick penalties. They're letting us play a little more. I think they've done a really good job with that."
Theoretically, the new game should lend itself to ferocious open-ice hitting because of the increased speed. The art of playing physical defense in the corners and in front of the net is a different matter.
Many defensemen have been forced to un-learn old lessons.
"Playing defense in your own zone is a lot different than the last time we played hockey," Penguins coach Eddie Olczyk said. "(In past years) you were able to offset getting beat out of the corner by hooking or holding."
5. What to make of shootouts?
Judging by the noise in arenas as the Zamboni clears a pathway from center ice to the goaltender, they are a resounding success.
The league isn't over-saturating fans with shootouts, either. Through Wednesday's games, there had been only 25, compared to 33 games decided in overtime.
Quinn, again, is one of the vocal critics.
"No other sport does it, except for soccer," he told reporters after a shootout loss to Ottawa. "I don't know why we do it."
Anyone who watched Crosby roof a backhander to beat Montreal two weeks ago would respond with the obvious answer: Because it's incredibly entertaining.
Make no mistake, the NHL knew it needed to make a serious entertainment adjustment if it wanted to survive the lockout.
Fans have responded. The Sports Business Journal reported earlier this month that television ratings, while down nationally, are up 29 percent across Fox Sports Net affiliates this season. That dovetails nicely with the fact that attendance has increased or held steady in 23 of the NHL's 30 markets.
Walkom figures the most disparaging remarks are uttered out of frustration after a loss. He doesn't mind the new league's critics.
"Deep down," he said, "I think they really love it."
Additional Information:
Reaching their goals
The following figures - all measured nearly a quarter of the way into this season compared to a quarter of the way into the 2003-04 season - demonstrate just how much the NHL has changed:GOALS PER GAME2003-04: 5.1 2005-06: 6.3
POWER PLAY GOALS 2003-04: 426 2005-06: 618
POWER PLAYS PER GAME 2003-04: 9.2 2005-06: 12.8
SHOTS PER GAME 2003-04: 55.2 2005-06: 59.5
SHUTOUTS 2003-04: 50 2005-06: 23
FIGHTING MAJORS 2003-04: 401 2005-06: 229
