from Amazon
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Life and death of research ideas in the NHL
Great article on NHL’s willingness to test new rules:
Placed in charge of the R & D effort, and the sales job surrounding it, is retired hockey great Brendan Shanahan, now the league’s vice-president of hockey and business development. “There were some ideas that were adventurous and others that were subtle,” says Shanahan, about the recent camp. “I wanted to capture the full spectrum.” Shanahan, who had the final say on the testing schedule, takes the scientist’s view that a “negative” experimental result can be as useful and instructive as a “positive” one. “Sometimes you just have to see things play out to really satisfy your curiosity,” he says. “What I told people that got sort of frightened at some of our far-out ideas is that sometimes your goal is to breathe life into an idea—but other times, you try it out because it’s time to put it to bed.”
Love that quote!
And yes, genius to do this:
The presence of elite young players seems to have been an effective addition, guaranteeing strong interest from hockey fans and journalists and ensuring that both the skill level and the competitiveness of the play would be high. Shanahan, a former number two overall pick, knew that despite the weird game modifications, juniors angling for high draft slots wouldn’t dare sleep through Gatorade-sponsored scrimmages against their best peers in front of hundreds of scouts, reporters and executives.
And this is what I talk about with the workplace safety issue, and players being front-and-center involved:
With a new head-shot rule already in place for 2010-’11, one major (and relatively likely looking) proposal on display at the camp involved player safety: namely, the “hybrid icing” rule whereby a linesman can use discretion to settle a mismatched race for the puck and blow it dead before the contenders reach the end boards.
And what a great statement of purpose:
As far as possible, Shanahan says, the league wants to keep the game recognizable, respect its spirit, and let the players, as opposed to the coaches, settle outcomes—something that should appeal to fans.
I can’t stand when a manager goes out to the mound. I can’t stand the mid-inning relief changes. Coaches in football, hockey, basketball, soccer, and tennis don’t go out in the field of play: why do we need to see a manager there?
I find it ironic that the NHL is taking such seemingly bold steps toward modifying its on-ice product when it completely missed the boat during the last round of arena updates. THAT was the time to expand the ice surface—the NHL failed to do so, and has ever since lamented the clutching, grabbing, and lack of room to play. During a misspent afternoon many moons ago, I once noticed after a review of various NHL media guides that the NHLer over 200 lbs circa 1975 was a most rare beast. Now, the rare beast is the one _under_ 200. Yet, the ice size is the same. The NHL can research and develop until the cows come home, and it still won’t compensate for the lack of ice space.