The NHL's Last Two Pillars.

(Disclaimer: major bias from this post. Author is Canadian, and thus permanently impaired with hockey culture)

Ever since the Gretzky trade, we've witnessed a surge in popularity for hockey, and not just the NHL. The League has spread to new American cities, even the CHL (the Canadian Hockey League) has remained popular in Michigan, Washington, and Oregon. It's not at the level of the other three major sports in the U.S., but its not exactly a fringe sport either. Many Canadian hockey fans feel like proud papa's watching our baby grow up in the States. We hope that Americans will enjoy our sport, a big part of our culture, and we hope Americans see it as "different", a breath of fresh air.

Right now, there are two major "differences" that set apart the NHL from the other sports that are in danger of being tossed in order to adhere to the rigid American pro sports paradigm:

(1) Fighting, no other league allows it.

When Todd Fedoruk fell to the ice, knocked unconscious by a Colton Orr punch, the ripple effect soon gave way to a tidal wave of public concern. The NHL's Disciplinary Sheriff Collin Campbell has even taken this to the next level, stating that he wanted to carefully consider fighting's future in the League. The "Instigator Rule" then creeps into the conversation. As you may know, the Instigator Rule states that the aggressor in a fight receives an additional two minute minor penalty and another possible 10 minute misconduct, thereby putting their team at a disadvantage. This makes it very difficult for enforcers to police against extra physical attention being paid to a team's star player.

Let's take a deep breath here before we punt fighting out of the game. Campbell can maybe table some other ideas, like removing the instigator rule concurrent with expelling players who fight. Perhaps ramp up suspensions for particularly egregious play. Nobody goes to an NHL game to watch a fight anymore. But, then again, you don't go to a game to see your star player lying on the ice all gooned-up from some meat-head. I think the odd tilt has a place in the game. But the issue should be on controlling it,not just giving it the heave-ho.

(2) Point system, no other league has it.

It used to be 2 points for a win, 1 point for a tie. But the concept of a "tie" doesn't digest well with the American sports fan, they are not used to it, they haven't been exposed to it. NFL/NCAA football ties occur at the frequency of lunar eclipses. So, we introduced overtime, eventually the shoot-out, which killed the dreaded tie game. We still have the single point for a tie after regulation time, but this concept is under siege.

Consider this, if you eliminate the single point for the regulation tie and only award the two points for the win, the point system becomes redundant. A team will always have an even number of points evenly divided by the number of wins that they have amassed. The league might as well convert to the American system of Wins, Losses, Percentage, Games Back. The point system will become meaningless without the single point. To avoid this, instead of eliminating the point for the tie, the league should devalue the single point by increasing the value of the win. Give three points for the win, and the single point for the tie. This under-emphasises the tie, and we keep our unique point system.

I hope we keep pillar #1 and #2. They keep our game unique. Next year, the NHL will have new uniforms for all 30 teams. There you have it, you change junkies. Let this overhaul digest before you aim your sights on fighting and the point-system.