Is it Time for the NHL to Revisit Larger Nets?
Let's be real: we're at the stage where great goaltending too often overshadows the other superstars of the sport. The NHL's top netminders � including the starters for the two Stanley Cup Finalists this year, Tampa's Andrei Vasilevskiy and Montreal's Carey Price � can now post save percentages at or near the .940 mark on a fairly regular basis. That's terrific for them, but not nearly as good for skating stars like Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, and Auston Matthews, the latter of whom was the only NHLer to get close to or broach the 40-goal plateau this past regular season.
But if the league decided to raise the nets by a few inches on each side and on the crossbar, something different would happen: players like Price, Vasilevskiy, and Marc-Andre Fleury of Vegas would still be stars, but the gap between them and the game's "average" goalies would be considerably wider.
The sport's best snipers would suddenly have new perspectives and shooting targets, allowing them to pick apart inferior goalies and boost the quantity of goals that paying fans and TV viewers enjoy watching.
We also know the NHL has seriously considered bigger nets under commissioner Gary Bettman's reign. In 2003, Bettman referenced the issues with goalie equipment, noting that, «At some point (goalie) equipment will become too cumbersome and just make the nets bigger and that will take care of any issues that anybody has about whether or not the equipment is too big or too small or whether or not we're scoring enough goals.»
I don't often agree with Bettman, but I have to give him and league powerbrokers credit for being willing to change course on nets and experiment with making them larger. In 2005, the NHL experimented with different net sizes, by examining three different options.
It's time the NHL moved forward with its previous designs on making their nets bigger. They needn't be huge, but they also shouldn't be obsessed with protecting the status quo. Times change, bodies grow, and goalies and coaches adapt. For the style and substance of the sport, we need to be honest and brave in making changes today that will impact the quality of games tomorrow.
Credit: SI.com
| POLL | ||
Do we need bigger nets? | ||
| Yes | 181 | 41 % |
| No | 261 | 59 % |
| List of polls | ||
