The biggest problem hockey has is the lack of scoring. The changes to open up the flow of the game were good and a big improvement. However, goalie equipment still makes it too hard to score. If you look at old footage, you see the goalies with pads but not the "mattresses" they wear now.

Back in the late 80's, early 90's Hockey was popular and growing. The reason was a lot of high scoring teams like Edmonton, Pittsburgh, Calgary, etc. Even people who don't understand all the strategy and rules can appreciate a goal and the excitement it causes.

The people who say get rid of hitting and fighting don't know what they are talking about. It is an inherent part of the sport, but more importantly people like violence. Everyone gets pumped up by a big hit in hockey just like they do in football. If anything, hockey needs MORE hitting and fights to draw tv ratings (see ultimate fighting).

Keep the violence, increase scoring and get on ESPN and hockey will be popular again

I do not agree. The scoring is not what makes the game exciting, its the scoring CHANCES. Indoor Lacrosse has a dozen goals per game and no one is flooding into the arenas to watch that.

Look at football. There's as much scoring in that game as there is in hockey, the only difference is each score is worth a bunch of points instead of one, yet football ratings are through the roof.

If you get people to watch and understand the game, the eb and flow of play is what will keep viewers hooked, not how many times the goal light is turned on.

A 21-14 NFL game is basically a score of 3-2, if you score it the same way you do hockey.

What about 1-0 baseball games? Don't find them exciting?

I really don't want to see high scoring hockey games. That's just hampering the defensemen and goalies unnecessarily and punishing them for being good at their jobs. There's nothing wrong with a hard fought, 3-2 or 2-1 victory. The last thing we need is 82 All-Star-like games a year.