Detroit Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock, right, and his GM Ken Holland don't agree on what the NHL should do with the red-line. (Tony Gutierrez/Associated Press)
Detroit Red Wings general manager Ken Holland sat around with Mike Babcock and Nicklas Lidstrom discussing some hockey issues on Friday.
In a couple days Holland will travel to Boca Raton, Fla., for the NHL general managers' meetings and before he departs, he wanted to broach a subject with his head coach and injured captain - an issue that Holland and Babcock disagree on.
Holland would like to see the NHL stay the course and continue to play without the centre (red) line. Babcock would like to see the red-line, which was taken out seven years ago, back in play.
The Red Wings head coach believes that the return of the red-line would push the defending team's trap from their blue-line to the centre-line, and this would allow the team with the puck to exhibit skill in methodically bringing the puck up the ice.
Holland, on the other hand, likes the way the game is played now and doesn't see any advantages to bringing back the centre-line.
"I'm not sure where we are going if we put the red-line back in," Holland said. "I think we have a great game. There are scoring chances. There are lead changes. There is parity. There are races for the divisions. There are races for the conferences. There are races for the playoffs. Last year, seven of the 15 series in the playoffs went to a game seven.
"I don't think the game has ever be better. I think the games are great. It's important to continue to discuss and talk about ways to make the game better. Coaches always are going to make adjustments. We took the red-line out and everybody thought it was great. Coaches have had an opportunity to figure out the system. They're always going to adjust. They're the 30 best coaches in the world. We have a great game and lets continue going the way we're going."
Game too fast?
The removal of the red-line and a new standard of officiating have sped up the NHL game. But a byproduct of all this speed has resulted more violent collisions, and more concussions.
The absence of Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby for all but eight games in the past 14 months has only heightened the awareness that maybe the game has become too swift.
"I'm open to conversations of how we can slow the game down a bit, but I would like to know where we're going," Holland said. "I'm not a big fan of putting [the centre-line] back in. I think the game will become nothing but whistles. I like the idea of the stretch pass."
To keep the red-line out or put it back in will be just one topic for discussion among the general managers in Florida. The removal of the trapezoid behind the goal, the area in which restricts goalies to where they can play the puck behind the goal-line, is another possibility.
Holland would be open to a discussion on the removal of the trapezoid because he feels that only a handful of goalies would benefit from being allowed to play the puck more.
Besides the centre-line, the trapezoid and the concussion issue there will be other discussion points around the rules of the game at the GM meetings, like possibly allowing video review on goaltender interference calls and non-calls.
CBA talks also on agenda
But most of the two days in Florida will be spent on details surrounding the impending collective bargaining talks between the league and the players.
As ESPN.com's Pierre Lebrun pointed out a few weeks ago the NHL has yet to set a new salary cap number for 2012-13 - believed to be between $68-million and $69-million US - but this would be seen as artificial because the details of a new CBA have yet to be negotiated and the salary cap could be altered whenever a new CBA has been agreed upon.
Tim Wharnsby
Tim's worked the sports beat at The Globe and Mail and the Toronto Sun, specializing in Canada's one true sporting obsession - hockey. He knows the players, the coaches, the backroom boys and most importantly, the fans. That's what he brings to his stories. Knowledge, fairness and understanding are trademarks of a Wharnsby story. That's what you will get here as he writes for CBCSports.ca.
