Is Hockey fixable?

If you think that the NHL should be panicking, and that they have a problem, you're wrong. After the Lockout, the NHL hit the reset button on their history, and said "If you want to watch us, you have to like the new NHL, not the old one. Like us for who we are now, and not what we once were."

The number of teams need to be 30. With more and more international players looking to play in the NHL, it is important that there are enough places for them. It will help internationalise the game, which is good for it (although not from a US perspective).

__________________________ The Pig Pen

Um... did you watch the finals this year? Let's review: 1) Game 2's final score: 1-0, with the only goal scored late in the third by a grinder, not a superstar. Intense game. 2) Every game except the final one was tightly contested on the ice and on the scoreboard. Yeah, Game 5 was a blowout, but that sort of collapse has happened many times in the NHL, not just since they cracked down on fights. 3) The Ducks had by far the most fighting majors in the league, and play an incredibly physical game (just ask Chris Pronger).

The Ducks are the most old-school team in the league right now, and they won the Cup — as it should be.

Granted, fighting overall is way down, and the league needs to ditch that stupid instigator rule. Fighting is, and should be, part of hockey. And yes, the refs need to lighten up and "let 'em play," and not make the players so afraid to hit that the game becomes figure skating.

But reducing the clutch-and-grab of the 90s has improved the game; watching another neutral zone trap team bore their way to a Cup is not what I want to see brought back. Let 'em skate fast and hard, without the old obstruction, and we'll see more scoring AND more big hits. All the league needs to do to improve play is let the fights and clean hits continue without reverting to the tedious traps and wrestling-on-ice that plagued most of the 90s and early 00s.