Hitting The Nail On The Head

I know only one or two of you care about this sport, but I found these comments by John Tortorella, the head coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning, totally on point regarding the downfall of the new NHL:

TAMPA - Every now and then, depending on a variety of factors - his mood, the question, the audience, what he had for breakfast that morning - Lightning coach John Tortorella will step up onto his soapbox and let it flow.

He is, as has become abundantly clear during his time in the Bay area, an outspoken fellow when the mood strikes. The mood struck Friday, as he revisited one of his pet peeves about the NHL - the relative lack of physical play since the installment of rules designed to open up the game.

"This coach, here, I think the game's going in the wrong direction," Tortorella said. "I think we've done some great things as far as some of the rules changes, in allowing our best players to be our best players. But I think what we've done is we've gone across and gone down the wrong road and taken the physicality out of the game, taking the jam out of the game. And I think we get so hyped up about trying to bring new fans in, we forget about the old-schoolers that are going to be there, thick or thin. And I think we're losing them, because it's a ballet."

This, from a coach whose team entered Friday's game against the Devils as the least-penalized team in the league. Which means that, as much disdain as Tortorella demonstrates about the "ballet" that the game has become, he and GM Jay Feaster are savvy enough to put together the kind of team that - theoretically - can take advantage of the system in place.

Still, Tortorella yearns for the good old days, when an annoyingly chatty opposing player who opened his yap once too often wouldn't get a free pass up and down the ice.

"I just think it needs to be revisited, as far as what the crux of this game is," he said. "It's hard people playing a hard game. It's no longer that way anymore in my mind. … Let's take a long look at this now and see where it's going. That's all I ask. That's all I'd like to see. I hope we have an open view and see where it's at, and not be afraid to maybe revisit some of the old stuff that was in this game and bring that back."

I sure hope the NHL's inept commissioner, Gary Bettman, and its competition committee taks a good look in the mirror in the offseason and realizes that the rules need to be tweaked or they are going to lose the only fans they have left.

The NHL needs to take a note from Nascar. When they make a rule that doesn't work, they come to their senses and change it. That's what I love about that sport. (Yes, I do consider Nascar a sport.) They are always working to make things more competitive.

We all realize the Flyers suck this year and that could be contributing to my dissatisfaction with the league, but if the NHL returned to a more physical on ice product, I think I'd watch more out of market games. Well, at least that makes one of us.