"Unless the league extends the schedule from 82 to 150 games, [Wayne] Gretzky's single-season totals in each category are equally unattainable. His record 92 goals, set during the 1981-82 season, should stand until our sun burns out or the league folds — whichever comes first."
— From the article "Unbreakable: These are the NHL records that should stand for all eternity — or at least until Wayne Gretzky's son plays in the NHL" by Adam Raider/Hockey Digest, Jan. 2002
Raise your hand if you still agree with that analysis, written just under four years ago. Because I sure as hell don't.
The NHL is a different league now. It's a different game now. As Steve Yzerman famously opined recently, "it's not hockey." He was specifically talking about the seemingly endless parade of penalties referees are calling for anything that even hints at illegality. It's a trend in Gary Bettman's NHL that trickles down like a splash of urine on every facet of defensive hockey, from penalty killers sucking wind for three periods to goalies flopping around every few minutes like that goldfish in the Faith No More video.
These penalties are also part of the bigger picture in Bettman's NHL, which I think an oil painting of a European forward skating untouched into the offensive zone and then beating a goalie with three-inch pads for his 200th goal of the season.
Increased power plays, tag-up off-sides, shrunken goalie pads, the elimination of the red line, and the new icing rule that restricts line changes for defensive teams all have their virtues. (That nonsensical restriction on where a goalie can play the puck? Not so much). All of these rule changes and enforcements have given the NHL a goal transfusion — instead of 2-1 games, we're getting 4-3 games. On some nights we're getting more 6-5 games than you get on most summer baseball evenings.
Ah, yes, baseball. Ironic, isn't it, that after a contentious labor stoppage that cancelled a season and alienated millions of hockey fans, the offense has been turned up to 11 in order to win them back? Now, where have I seen that before...?
After canceling the 1994 World Series — depriving the good fans of Montreal of a pennant and, eventually, of their franchise — Major League Baseball did whatever it could to ensure the millions of baseball dads, whose childhoods had been collectively raped by greedy players, all came back to the ballpark. So it juiced anything it could: balls and players, mostly.
I know what you're thinking: "Juiced players, sure; juiced ball? That's a black helicopter theory?" Sorry, Scully, but Mulder's right: of course they juiced the ball. We can pretend that they didn't — that the dramatic rise in home run production has something to do with expansion or watered-down pitching or hitter's ballparks.
But after the Black Sox scandal in 1919, home runs increased from 630 in 1920 to 937 in 1921 — a 32.8% increase. As the Great Depression swept across the national at the end of the decade, home runs took another jump, from 1,349 in 1929 to 1,565 in 1930. In the 1980s, as the game was tarred by drug scandals and attitude problems with its players, home runs went from 2.27 per 100 at-bats in 1984 to 3.01 per at-bat in 1987. In 1993, there were 4,030 home runs hit. In 1996, the first full season after the strike, there were 4,962 home runs hit. Do the math.
The NHL didn't juice the puck (after FOX made it glow, there's been a moratorium on puck mutation). Instead, it's juiced the game itself, creating this back-and-forth pond hockey game where there are more power play goals than fights on the ice.
(Come to think of it, are there even fights anymore? I think Krzysztof Oliwa pumped my gas for me the other day. )
Just like they did when Major League Baseball kissed nine-inning complete game shutouts and 1-0 extra-inning games goodbye in the mid-1990s, the fans have flocked back to hockey. Chicks might dig the long-ball, but puck-heads love the lamp lit. Scoring is up in an unbelievable way — take Ottawa, which as of last weekend was leading the NHL at 4.6 goals per game. According to the Baltimore Sun, the Senators also led the league back in 2004 with 3.2 goals per game — which would have put them 12th in the New NHL.
As of last month, Vinny Lecavalier, Simon Gagne, Daniel Alfredsson, Jaromir Jagr, Dany Heatley, Eric Staal, Daniel Briere, Alexander Ovechkin, Markus Naslund, Brian Gionta, Martin Havlat, and Rod Brind'Amour were all on a pace to crack the 50-goal mark. Ken Holland GM of the Red Wings, recently told the Canadian Press that the 50 goals is a "magical number" because it's an elite group. "Not a lot of people have done it in the history of our game," he said. "The reason the No. 50 is there is because in the early years it was almost impossible and then Rocket Richard came along and scored 50 and the standard was set. That was the bar. And then Phil Esposito got 76 and Wayne Gretzky went to 92."
No. 50 used to mean a lot in baseball, too, when it came to home runs. But in its post-strike era of offensive domination, it became commonplace. From 1998-2002, that threshold was reached nine times; from 1978-94, it happened once.
In 1998, it just got ridiculous. Mark McGwire hits 70, shattering Roger Maris' mark of 61. Then Barry Bonds breaks that record, swatting 73 in 2001. Say what you will about the alleged chemical enhancement of these players, but it takes more than a shot in the ass to hit 70 home runs. (Perhaps that's why Mike Piazza never did.) It takes hitter-friendly ballparks, watered-down pitching, and a ball with more juice than an orange grove.
Baseball allowed this offensive boom to go unchecked because it was good for business. And so will the NHL, even if it means a player like Brian Gionta has suddenly gone from a speedy winger with 33 goals in 166 career games to his team's leading scorer — with 16 goals in 24 games — because the rules are finally in his favor.
But as baseball can attest, there's an inherent danger to selling out for a longer box score. Remember Bonds' assault on the home run record? Remember the fan apathy? It wasn't just because it was the loathsome Bonds in the chase — it was because we had gone from 1961 to 1998 with a seemingly unreachable home run record, and now it was being shattered again after just three seasons. There was a counterfeit feeling to it ... almost like the game we were watching wasn't really the same game we grew up with.
There may not be the same feeling now in the NHL, as fans squeal with orgasmic glee at the goal-scoring frenzy that is Bettman's NHL. But what if, as the league continues to bow down to Brendan Shanahan's and Mario Lemieux's offensive visions for the game, we begin to see hallowed hockey records threatened?
What if Gretzky's 92 goals someday come under assault by one of today's stars: Sidney Crosby or Alexander Ovechkin, perhaps?
At first it'll be like the summer of '98, with the world enthralled as McGwire and Sammy Sosa stalked the legendary mark. Years later, we'll look back and openly question its validity. Gretzky played with a red line. Gretzky played with goalies that were free to play the puck wherever they wanted. Gretzky took punishment in the offensive zone, or skated like hell to avoid it. Gretzky played in a league that didn't whistle a player for thinking about hooking an opponent, let alone one that actually does it.
Gretzky played a different game than the players today are playing. So even if someone is able to threaten any of his single-season or career marks, should we consider him on par with The Great One?
Is Bettman's NHL so alien to the league of the last two or three decades that its records should exist in a vacuum?
Yzerman isn't alone in his discontent about the state of the game. Yet I was stunned by was the reaction of the hockey media establishment, which began to question whether Yzerman was griping because he could no longer compete in this revamped league — as if he was just too old to do it anymore. I found the backlash to be quite Roveian: ignore the message and then slander the messenger. It certainly wasn't the same reaction Mario received when he used to gripe about what the NHL should or should not look like — those tirades were treated like gospel by the fawning hockey media.
And now, those ideas are gospel, in the form of the New NHL's rulebook. Mario's vision of unchecked offensive hockey is a reality. These will be years of great potential for the NHL because of it. But if baseball is any indication, there will be a point where fans and media finally begin to question the validity of it all. That's when the shine comes off the new car.
I mean, have you seen the ratings for the World Series lately?
Greg Wyshynski is the Features Editor for SportsFan Magazine in Washington, DC, and the Senior Sports Editor for The Connection Newspapers of Northern Virginia. His book "Glow Pucks and 10-Cent Beer: The 101 Worst Ideas in Sports History" will be published in Spring 2006. His columns appear every Saturday on Sports Central. You can e-mail Greg at [email protected].
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