2070 Beiträge - Forenlegende
|
|
|
To figure out two things NHL general managers will be discussing at their annual March meeting, look no further than the controversial game the Los Angeles Kings and Detroit Red Wings played in mid-January. First, the Red Wings scored the tying goal after officials missed the puck hitting the protective netting, then the Kings wound up losing in a shootout. That could affect playoff positioning in the Eastern and Western Conferences, and thats a concern for everyone. No different than many fans, GMs hate to see a game end on an incorrect call and generally dont like to see one end in a shootout. So its only natural that altering or extending overtime and expanding video review will be hot topics on the agenda for meetings Monday through Wednesday in Boca Raton, Fla. When it comes to overtime, the hope is to have fewer games even reach the shootout, which was instituted after the 2004-05 lockout as a way of eliminating ties. Since then, 13.3 per cent of all regular-season games have gone to one, and thats seen as too much. "I would prefer for our game to be decided by playing hockey instead of the skill part of the game, which is the shootout," Jim Nill of the Dallas Stars said. "Its really tough. You can play a great game, play a great overtime and then you go to a shootout and just because you lose a shootout it feels like youve lost the game -- and you have, and it hurts because you played such a good game. I would rather lose a game by playing the game." Through Saturday, 121 of 962 games this season have gone to a shootout (12.57 per cent). Each team has participated in at least four, while the Washington Capitals lead the league with 15 of them through 64 games. A handful of general managers said in recent weeks that there was an appetite to reduce the number of shootouts by making some changes to overtime. Detroit GM Ken Holland has long sought adding time or a three-on-three element to overtime, and it has come time that Don Maloney of the Phoenix Coyotes figures more members of the group are "open-minded to reviewing it and discussing it." "In the past, it was generally touched on but deferred," Maloney said. "And I think as you go on with the parity of the league, I think we all have to take a harder look." Jim Rutherford of the Carolina Hurricanes usually sits near Holland at these meetings and is in favour of his proposals to change overtime. After plenty of talk over the years, perhaps more will get on board. "I think were heading that way," Rutherford said. "Its been talked about a long time, this is not something new. I dont know how many minutes itll end up being -- the total minutes in overtime. Thats really where the big discussion will come. But I think the fact that this has been discussed for a few years now, I think its gaining some momentum going into this meeting." What that momentum will turn into remains to be seen. Rutherford and Holland would like five minutes of the already-established four-on-four followed by five minutes of three-on-three, while Doug Armstrong of the St. Louis Blues voiced support for simply making four-on-four overtime longer. But, as Doug Wilson of the San Jose Sharks knows, change in the NHL tends to go in "phases." So its possible that the first change to overtime is a very subtle one: teams changing ends like they do in the second period so that theres a longer way to go for players to get off the ice for line changes. "I would be a hundred per cent in support," Maloney said. "If you look at the second period and the (long) line changes how often mistakes are made, and bad line changes lead to rushes. All of a sudden you do that in overtime with four people and the tiredness of the game, I think thats a natural evolution, myself. I think thats the first step." Red Wings coach Mike Babcock brought that up in Sochi after seeing overtime in the womens gold-medal game between Canada and the United States. Mistakes led to three penalties and then a power-play goal 8:10 into overtime. "The NHL looks at that right there, we want overtime to be over in a hurry, all you do is flip ends, make it as hard as you can," Babcock said while at the Olympics. "Its harder on the long change." Another subject that will get plenty of discussion is video review, which is currently limited to the situation room in Toronto determining if a goal was good or not. Even though it was just one instance, that Jan. 18 game between the Red Wings and Kings is example A for expanding review. "You can count on one hand how many times they miss a puck hitting the net, but that specific case and it ended up as a goal, yeah, it probably shouldve been (reviewed) -- maybe if the video department had that authority, it wouldve been used," Maloney said. "And I think we all agree that in that case that was just wrong, and we need to correct that." Several general managers cautioned that too much replay can be a bad thing. Just as its being debated in baseball and football, the biggest pitfall to more video reviews is the time they can take. "Our game is part of momentum and keeping the game going," Rutherford said. "But at the same time, the league has always said that they want to get goals right. We saw an example (in Detroit) where it had nothing to do with the guidelines of how the league proceeds, but we didnt get one right. "So thats something that well discuss, Im sure. But theres a fine line there: How many times can you review things in a game without slowing it down to change the time of a game another 15 minutes." In that same vein, Nill would like to see "tweaks" to video review in important cases but doesnt want the NHL to become a "robotic" game with frequent calls to the situation room. Still, theres a ground swell to at least add replay in isolated cases, like on plays goals are scored on. That may not mean instituting a challenge system for coaches right away but perhaps something more simple. "It would be nice to just have a monitor in the penalty box for the official to gather as much information to make the right call because theyre closest to the action like they have in other leagues," Wilson said, pointing to the model used in the NFL and NBA. Some things, like goaltender interference, would require a stricter interpretation to be subject to video review. Penalties, like players putting the puck over the glass or getting a double-minor called for high-sticking, would fall into another category to be considered. "I think everything thats critical to the outcome of the game, if its conveniently available, we should review," Columbus GM Jarkko Kekalainen said. "Not to disturb the flow of the game and the time of each game as a whole -- we dont want games to last four hours or anything like that. But with the technology these days I think that there should be some kind of a system where all the critical plays can be reviewed so that we dont see the (wrong) outcomes." With three days of meetings scheduled on Floridas east coast, general managers are expected to delve into a host of other topics, including the regulation -- or elimination -- of goaltender fights and the impact of the falling Canadian dollar on next years salary cap. At Decembers board of governors meeting, the 2014-15 cap was estimated at just above US$71 million, rising from the $64.3 million ceiling for this season. Kings GM Dean Lombardi told the Los Angeles Times that he and his colleagues were advised it could be as low as $US68 million as the Canadian dollar continues to fall. As of Saturday, the loonie was worth roughly 90 cents U.S., after being above 95 cents midway through 2013. Goalie fighting is expected to at least be touched on after it was broached at Novembers meeting in Toronto that followed the infamous incident between Ray Emery of the Philadelphia Flyers and Braden Holtby of the Capitals. Rutherford and Maloney indicated they believed the issue was a bit overblown at the time. "Really theyre so rare, arent they? That was an isolated (incident)," Maloney said. "If we start to see goalie fights every other game, yeah, OK, maybe theres a problem. I dont see it being a problem. That was a one-time incident that nobody liked, but I think our officials and the people that review the games, they do a pretty good job of cleaning up anything thats outside the rules. So I dont see a real mandate to start over-regulating the game in that area." LINCOLN, Neb. -- UCLAs emotional week ended with the Bruins making the biggest comeback by a visitor to Lincoln in nearly a century. Brett Hundley threw three touchdown passes while No. 16 UCLA wiped out an 18-point deficit to defeat No. 23 Nebraska 41-21 and stun into silence a record crowd of 91,471 on Saturday. The win came six days after UCLA receiver Nick Pasquale was killed when he was struck by a vehicle while he was walking in his hometown and a day before coaches and teammates travel to San Clemente, Calif., for his memorial service. "You cant believe how tough it was on them," Bruins coach Jim Mora said. "You never want to say you won one for somebody. We didnt win one for Nick. What we tried to do today is go out and play with the type or energy, enthusiasm and passion for the game that would reflect what he meant to us." The Bruins wore No. 36 patches on their jerseys in memory of Pasquale. The Huskers wore No. 36 decals on their helmets, and there was a moment of silence for Pasquale before the game. The Huskers (2-1), wearing alternate black jerseys instead of their traditional home red, looked to be in total control in the first half. Then they had a flashback to last year at the Rose Bowl, when they couldnt stop Hundley and an offence that had 653 yards in a 36-30 Bruins win. "The first half there was so much emotion, Im not going to lie," Hundley said. "I just had so much emotion going into the game. There were a lot of things that added up to it. After the first half, everything slowed down and we got back to playing football and came out with the win." The 18 points marked the biggest deficit overcome by a Nebraska opponent in Lincoln since Washington State, according to the university yearbook, erased a 20-0 halftime deficit to win 21-20 in 1920. Memorial Stadium opened in 1923. The Bruins (2-0) scored 35 points in 16 minutes. The barrage started with Paul Perkins 10-yard touchdown run to cut Nebraskas lead to 21-10 at the half. Jordon James scored from 3 yards before Hundley threw TD passes of 28 yards to Shaquelle Evans, 12 yards to Phillip Ruhl and 3 yards to Nate Iese. "We came in at halftime and there werent a lot of adjustments that needed to be made," Mora said. "It was more of an adjustment in our mindset." Mora told his players at halftime that they needed to relax and breathe. "There were no mystical, magical Xs and Os," Mora said. &"It was just our players doing what theyre supposed to do and really just loving what they do, and thats playing football.dddddddddddd" Nebraskas defence, which has struggled in the biggest games in the past year, allowed 236 yards in the third quarter and 504 for the game. "The second half was a lot like last year," Nebraska coach Bo Pelini said. "We made the tackles in the first half. I dont know how many tackles we missed in that second half but it is a lot. We missed tackle after tackle after tackle." Nebraska came into the game hoping to get even for last years embarrassing performance against UCLA. Bruins linebacker Anthony Barr, who made 11 tackles and forced three fumbles, said he and his teammates also felt they had something to prove. "A lot people said last year was a fluke," Barr said. "We were listening to that and had a chip on our shoulder coming in here. We didnt play with enough controlled emotion in the first half. "The emotion got the best of us and we wanted to do a little bit too much on offence and defence. When that kind of settled down a little bit, we took a deep breath and came out and made a statement." The Huskers still looked as if they had some life in them when, trailing 38-21, they moved from their 25 to the UCLA 12 early in the fourth quarter. But Ameer Abdullah fumbled at the 6 after getting hit by Barr. Nebraska generated more than 19 yards on just two of its last 10 possessions and had only 130 of its 326 yards after halftime. "I felt at times I was looking at our guys on the sideline and it was like they saw a ghost," Pelini said. "Someone has to step up and make a play. We needed to get the momentum turned back the other way, and it didnt happen." Hundley completed 16 of 25 passes for 294 yards, with one interception that set up Nebraskas first touchdown. James ran 22 times for 105 yards and a TD. Taylor Martinez was 21 of 35 for 203 yards and three touchdowns for the Huskers, and Abdullah had 98 yards on 23 carries. Hundley kept alive the Bruins lone touchdown drive of the first half when he scrambled for 13 yards on a third-and-12. "That might be the play of the game," Mora said. "I dont like to point to a single play. But right there, we needed that." Hundley passed for 32 yards to Devin Fuller on the next play, and Perkins went 10 yards up the middle to make it an 11-point game. Cheap China Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys China Cheap Jerseys From China China NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys Cheap Jerseys China ' ' '
|