EHM The Blue Line

To me the best thing about this is that there will no longer be the interminable delay for measurements of sticks before the (in my opinion) hated shootout

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=177493&hubname=nhl

Stick curves are increasing from 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch.

They are also stepping up fines/punishments for "embellishing" aka diving with both sets of punishments taking similar setups with fines then bigger fines, eventually suspensions and then doubling fines and suspensions etc.

Nothing major really and probably less than should be done, but let's see how things go...

Minstrel wrote:They are also stepping up fines/punishments for "embellishing" aka diving


Nothing major really and probably less than should be done, but let's see how things go...

Nothing major unless your name is Sean Avery

What does Avery have to do with the NHL in '07

hluraven wrote:What does Avery have to do with the NHL in '07

For starters - more trips to the penalty box and more fines. Of course that depends on how much playing time Crawford gives him, but considering Crawford's nasty side when things aren't going his way, I'm sure we'll see Sean on the ice a fair bit.

Hey Minty, what do they mean when they talk about the curve??

timmy_t wrote:Hey Minty, what do they mean when they talk about the curve??

The curve of the stick blade. If you look closely at a players stick you will notice it isn't perfectly straight, but has a curve. There is a limit on how much of a curve you can have, previously 1/2" but now upped to 3/4".

Back in the 50's and 60's and even in the early 70's there were still a lot of players who used sticks without a curve at all. In todays game I doubt there even a handful of players who don't have somewhat of a curve in their stick.

In conjunction with this, one of the reasons players in earlier eras liked straight sticks is because the backhand shot was a lot more popular and you generally have more control over that type of shot with a straight stick. You still see backhand shots today, but not nearly as much as in earlier eras. It is often said that Bobby Hull made the curved stick popular with his booming slapshots that exceeded 100mph more often than not.

BruceM wrote:

hluraven wrote:What does Avery have to do with the NHL in '07

For starters - more trips to the penalty box and more fines. Of course that depends on how much playing time Crawford gives him, but considering Crawford's nasty side when things aren't going his way, I'm sure we'll see Sean on the ice a fair bit.

I was meaning he wouldn't get much time above AHL level, but I may be wrong

hluraven wrote:

BruceM wrote:

hluraven wrote:What does Avery have to do with the NHL in '07

For starters - more trips to the penalty box and more fines. Of course that depends on how much playing time Crawford gives him, but considering Crawford's nasty side when things aren't going his way, I'm sure we'll see Sean on the ice a fair bit.

I was meaning he wouldn't get much time above AHL level, but I may be wrong

Ummm, he's not playing in the AHL. The Kings resigned him for $1.1M x 1 Yr.

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