Just like with playing guitar, painting and many other things, the average skillset tends to increase with time. In 30 years we'll be looking at todays NHL wondering why we praised some players. Humans just get better at things the longer we do it.
Yep I agree. People whine about Gretz not actually being that good but for his time, relative to the league he was incredible. New technology and newer ways to train will continue to increase efficiency and overall average abilities.
@@tylerriggs95As a professional musician with thirty years of playing time, he’s absolutely correct. Guitar is NOT capped. The kids today make guys like VanHalen, Steve Vai and Hendrix look like beginners technically. The players have continued evolving thanks to the internet.
As a goaltender of 11 years, nothing gets you worse than shots right above the hips. You want to extend your arm out as your taught, but it just opens up holes
That above the pad below the elbow armpit spot is definitely brutal to me as a noob beer-league goalie of 2.5 years experience lol. I have had to really think and readjust to challenge and stay square to the shooter, focus on my angle, keep my hips up, arms out, trying to make saves out in front of my pads, get right over the puck and attack the angle up close, etc. The thing is, the better these NHL players get, the better everyone else gets though watching their techniques and how they play, and learning how they learn, especially through formal training, so yeah, NHL is obviously elite, but everyone that plays the sport has gotten better and better even recreationally over the past 50 years haha
@@louiehunter6490 one, it's a tricky shot to read. Goalies have to realize they aren't making a typical blocker or glove save where they extend, but instead must contract, or "close the holes." This feels odd because it's essentially a blocking style save on a reaction type shot (glove or blocker saves)
@@louiehunter6490 I've certainly had to, for me it involves trying to avoid double coverage, getting your hands forward and low over the puck when the shooter is close, keeping your elbows tight to your body, and doing what you can to seal any holes, but that's most effective with good positioning and a good challenge on a straight-on shot. With all that, I've gotten a lot better at avoiding those goals and stopping more with my hands, arms, and good positioning. When moving laterally though, a lot of that can go out the window for me, and it's harder to stay square and get your whole body in front of a shooter, especially on a one timer. Even when you get a zinger going 14 inches above the ice from an aware shooter in the slot to the very far side of the net one way or another, trying to move your whole body enough to the side and catch a piece of it with your blocker can be really tough, and often ends up going over my pad and just beside / under my blocker or glove. Cant quite turn myself into a 3 foot high half-wall in the splits like Jonathan Quick can haha
Re: the slapshot. Equipment has changed so much in the past 20 years. Have a look at 7:18 in this vid. The amount of flex in the stick is wild. Players used wood sticks up until the 1990's, which made the slapshot a necessity as it gave the puck more velocity than a wrister. But now with these flexy sticks, you can get a lot of inertia on the stick from a "snap shot". So it's not just about the skill level; it's the development in the equipment as well when you compare eras such as the Gretzky era to now... Just an observation that may get overlooked. Great video!
Scoring is up because the NHL took active measures to increase scoring. Everyone wants to think it's because players are more skilled or better trained. Sure, that's a part of it, but it's not the main reason. The main reason is that the NHL took active measures to increase scoring. They cracked down on the clutch and grab part of the game. They did this in numerous ways. Calling interference more, slashing more, holding more, etc. Another thing the NHL did was to eliminate the two line pass and the crease rule. Goalies had got into the habit of wearing giant pads and gear. The NHL cracked down on that and streamlined goalie pads. They took OT and made it 3 on 3. All of that together has increased scoring. Make no mistake. Goals are up because Bettman wanted goals to go up.
The NHL did most of those rule changes after the 05 lockout and yet scoring absolutely plummeted during 2010-2016. The main reason why scoring is exploding is the NHL expansion, shrinking of goalie equipment and the explosion of offensive talent entering the league compared to goaltending. The league doesn’t have a Price, Lundqvist, and Quick type of goalie anymore.
@@RytheCodplayer the pad streamlining was a rule change. They just started cracking down on slashing like 3 years ago. They increased holding calls over the last two years substantially. It's been an ongoing effort that's now bearing fruit. All these younger NHL fans seem to think guys in the 90's weren't talented. Take Fedorov, Jagr, Bure, Tkachuk, Kovalev, etc etc and put them into today's league. Fedorov could play every position, including defense, and be elite at it. Name a guy today who does that.
@@RytheCodplayer And yes they do have goalies like that. Bob, Vasilevsky, Shesterkin, Hellebuyck.. the list goes on and on. The Dead puck era was a result of the trap, clutch and grab, giant equipment, and dangerous blindsided hits. McDavid would NEVER do half the things he does if you took him to 1996 and Scott Stevens was on the ice.
Every video is awesome. Not the brain rot content or ranking videos from all these other channels. This man knows his hockey. After playing hockey for 20 years im happy to learn the from this young man
It's the way all modern media is. So much competition out there, it's hard to make a name for yourself. You only get advertising $$ if you get lots of views/clicks. Easiest way to generate engagement? Through click-bait headlines or wildly controversial opinions. Same reason why TSN/Sportsnet have Leafs stuff every single day. They know love or hate, the Leafs generate views.
Hybrid Sticks, Shrunk the goalies equipment, added the trapezoid, removed the 2 line offside pass, handcuffed the defenseman with rules....gee I wonder why scoring is up?
Yeah he mentions how players are too good, but the defensemen have all improved too. They just cant out-defend rules that promote scoring (Which equals excitement to casuals and dollars I guess, or something.)
He had me that players were becoming too skilled, then all of a sudden at the end of the video he introduces huge variables that account for all the changes that have occurred. While players are becoming more skilled we clearly cannot conclude that being the ultimate factor given these other drastic changes
Can you do a video on the PWHL? Because it pretty well has the opposite issue, it's a goalie league, every goalie last season finished with the a save percentage at or above .900. Combined with the fact that the skill level of the players in the PWHL is absurd (Olympic and IIHF champions galore), it would be interesting to see why goaltending is/was the dominant factor in the inaugeral season.
Yes please!! I second this!! I would love to see a full hour + on the differences in gameplay between the NHL and PWHL. I love both leagues but Hockey Psychology always puts it into words that I can't find
My guess would be the most of the physiological differences between men and women aren't prominent factors in goaltending. It's so technical and reaction based, not much to do about muscle mass or power output. If you ever watch a skate where there's men and women goalies there is not much of a difference between the two genders doing the same drills. So in the PWHL you've got goalies who could be competitive at the higher levels of the men's game going against a slower tempo and shots not as fast
Every fourth-line player can pick the top corner if given enough time and a bit of luck. The 4th line players now would have been top 6 in the 80s and 90s, it is crazy.
yeah but that's not really true because it wouldn't work like that. If guys from today were back then they would behave like they did back then. If 99 were around today he would have trained like guys today and been even more scary.
Lemieux, Gretzky's contemporary, came back during Sidney Crosby's tenure, and he still dominated even after cancer and years not playing. So, no you're wrong.
At the heart of hockey will always lay the great debate: Speed and Skill vs. Size and Physicality. Physicality IS how you cancel out speed effectively. But the speed keeps going up. I think there is still some merit to big back ends, especially deep in the playoffs.
@@justinjacinto4350 They had a ton of talent. Reinhart, Barkov, Montour, Bobrovsky, Tkachuk, Bennet, etc. I think they have one of the best talent pools in the league.
I freaking love these analysis videos. They not only give me more insight onto the history of the sport, but give me more insight on some of the tactics that are used. As a new fan of hockey that started watching last season, these videos are really good.
Great video, I know nothing about hockey and your annotations made it way easier to understand what you were saying and you presented it in a really engaging way.
hockey is wildly popular here make no mistake, there’s no shortage of revenue and fans, but, the greatest “barrier” it faces in being “the biggest sport in the US is that it’s not a very good spectator sport compared to a few other major ones. The puck moves fast which is fun but the action is harder to follow for a layman compared to football, basketball and baseball. And finally, the sport is extremely locked, in regards to entering the sport, by a considerable financial burden. It’s an expensive sport to play so only a certain person with the means can participate. Compared to the previously state sports, the cost of playing is much less than hockey like quite notably. All things considered, hockey as in the NHL is one of the biggest professional sports leagues in American History with no sign of stopping anytime soon. It’s still love my millions from all corners of the country.
@@floufay5209If it was just about accessibility then soccer would be the most popular sport in American like it is in the rest of the world. Soccer is the most accessible least expensive sport
Look at the old 80's and 90's games. The games were much slower in pace because the players were much slower. There was much more time for beautiful passing combinations and the players who were actually fast (Bure, Kariya, Selanne, Datsyik) were shining much more because the skating speed differences between these fast forwards and gigantic D-men like Hatcher, Pronger were so obvious. I'm not sure how much removing the 2-line pass changed it but I find it much more enjoyable to watch games from the 90's because of the slower pace. Also the goalies have improved tremendously and they're much bigger (like 6'3 now). Sure the players are much better athletes now and there's no going back. But I'm not sure if the overall experience has improved.
I feel like nowadays you basically never see nice passing plays in 5 on 5 play. Everything is centered around powerplays while 5 on 5 is basically chip and grind constant garbage shots from the point, with the occasional odd man rush coming from broken plays.
I am pretty new to watching hockey, and I love your videos to understand the game better! Definitely the easiest sport to turn on and just be laser focused on the game.
I have never played hockey, never watched it, searched it, or had any interest in hockey, and I am not sure why this video was recommended to me. But I really enjoyed this video going to check it out now.
I took a 10(ish) year break from paying attention to the NHL, and just picked it up again last season during the playoffs. My face was pretty much the 😳 emoji while watching the first few games after I got back in- I get that all sports evolve over time, and there are rule changes to factor in as well, but holy crap the skill level of the players nowadays is really something else!
This must be a fairly new thing. I went to a MN wild game maybe 8 years ago? I was honestly pissed i paid for the ticket. Haven't been to or watched a game since. It was one of the laziest, slowest games of hockey i had ever seen. And it was both teams! My peewee coach would have had us skating lines for a week straight if we had played like that. Then i went to a UMD game, way better. Guys actually skating like they meant it. I was absolutely convinced that any decent high school team in MN would have destroyed those NHL teams if they played like that. I grew up watching guys like Mike Modano, Neal Broten and the like. Guys that skated hard. I'll have to watch a new game, if they are actually putting in some hustle, I might give it another shot. If not, I'll just stick to college games.
I think the slapshot was more relevant in an era where heavy wooden sticks were bad for a quick release. With the modern snapshot, you are sacrificing; if any at all, puck speed, for an unexpected quick release that catches the goalies off guard.
Ya the training and strategy has improved but its mainly the rules and equipment change. If you took the top teams from today and made them play against the late 90s/early 00 Devils with early 00 rules and equipment I think the Devils and their trap would win. For me i prefer old school smash mouth hockey rather than pure skill game. Same with football.
As someone who enjoys watching from time to time but never played and doesn’t know the game at all… this is cool and extremely helpful to see broken down.
What a great analysis! I started watching (and playing Hockey) in 1983 when i was 8, I'm 49 now and i recently got interested again in the NHL. The talent level is superb
People always talk about when we get the next great forward. Since Gretzky left, Ovi, Crosby, Kane, MacKinnon, McDavid, Matthews, whoever. All of those guys have at one point or another lived up the hype around them. At this point I’m not worried about who the next Gretzky will be, I want to see who the next Hasek will be. We havent seen a Goaltender of that caliber in decades, Price was close, but I’m not sure if there ever will be an innovator like that with a completely unheard of style that has never been used before and yet to be replicated since.
I've thought about this a fair bit and I blame teams. They really seem to baby goalies now. Take my team, for example. The Canucks totally babied Demko. The guy was the second goalie taken in his draft year and clearly hugely talented, but didn't become a regular until he was 24. How's a guy ever going to be the next Roy if they can't get into the net before a quarter of their career is over? I get that some guys need development time. Canucks have a great example in that too, with Silovs. But a guy like Demko should have been thrown into the fire when he was 20 or 21. He had the mentality. And it seems like fans go along with it too. Thinking everyone needs time in the minors. No they don't. Some guys are ready to go right away and need the top level or their bored. As far as an "innovator" goes...I think that gets harder and harder as time goes on. There are only so many more movements that exist. Most of them have already been tried and boiled down to what works. It will now be more of compensating. Goalies will begin to tighten up the things shooters are exposing like in the video, and then shooters will compensate and on and on back and forth. And over shorter periods of time. Eventually scoring will probably just flat line to a relatively consistent level.
@@doublestrokeroll You know there are other leagues than the NHL right? Demko was playing games before 24. Lol. He was the starter in the AHL and developed there. Same thing with Markstrom. He was floundering before that last season with the Comets and breaking out with us the year after. This is the catch 22. If they throw him to the wolves at 20 years old, people are like "Why did they rush him and not develop him properly?" And if you develop him properly but has unforseen injury problems people are like "clearly they babied him cause they didn't throw a 20 year old kid into the starter's crease." Old heads really have the dumbest takes.
@@JeremyCuddles what the hell are you talking about...I'm OBVIOUSLY talking about the NHL level. geezus....wtf.... I get you're 14 years old...but ffs.....
@doublestrokeroll how is a guy going to become the next Roy when his team throws him to the wolves before he's ready, and ruins his confidence before his abilities can match it? Goalies are the longest position to develop for a number of reasons. Very few are ready for regular NHL play at age 20. Demko wasn't one of them. Coaches and GMs don't bury players in the minors for half a decade because they can, but they also don't pull players up for showing flashes of their ability. Demko wasn't ready when you think he was. And if they put him in, there's little chance he'd have become as good as he is.
@@cousinpatsey2471 How do you know he's not ready until you give him a shot? Demko was most certainly one of them. The guy's psychology is off the charts and was the moment he turned pro. He was bored in the AHL and it was obvious. Not to mention I believe it pissed him off too judging by a few comments back in the day by him and his agent. But you're entitled to your opinion. We can disagree about this.
Great video! One small correction, Jacques Lemaire stated the Devils didn't originate the Trap. He had played in that style as a member of the Habs in the 1970s. They just scored so much that nobody thought it was boring lol
I know it's hockey psychology and not hockey English class, but it's training regimen, not regiments. Regiment is a group of soldiers. Thanks for the videos
I think it's a natural development of the game as equipment improves/changes and rules are adapted to emphasise the skill and speed over physicality and strength.
Neat. Very cool in depth explanation of dynamics of shooters and goalies. 👌This stuff is usually almost invisible to the eye but as always love the analysis.
Expansion and watering down the talent pool also contributes the the scoring trend. You can see the same pattern after every NHL game expansion, scoring increased.
carbon fiber sticks are the reason for the advancement. In college guys were using 110 flex sticks. Now I go down to the rink and there are grown men using 70 flex sticks. That used to be a child’s stick flex.
I was a pure defensive player with slap shot power hand with that new stick ultra light it's easy to past defender I'm 45 ! in one season i past to 3 goal season to an 1 goal game player plus ponts by game ! Skates and Stick are the reason nothing more ! Give same stick and skate on young gen player ! You will see goal drop like never and give back the rules to defense to be able to hit like before and hook, and interfere the truth is the game evolve for offence ! But only only one goal better !
I think we can thank Cory Hirsh. Remember that video he did for TSN or Sportsnet or whatever, showing how you could shrink goalie pads to make them more reasonable? They were getting ridiculous. As an older 80's fan I definitely think the quality of hockey has never been better than it is today. It's now struck a great balance between great O and great D. It's exciting and the skill really is off the charts. But I do have one fairly big problem with it. The cap rules are much too strong. I used to think parity through the league would be a good thing but I don't anymore. I don't want to go back to a one team dynasty for half a decade, but I do think that with so many teams being basically identical, and every year a any of 10 to 15 teams could win the Cup, it's kind of made the cup less special. In 5 years the only people who will remember the Panthers winning the cup will be Florida fans. (no offense, same for nearly every other winner). Without looking, who won the cup in 07? 09? 12? 14? 15? 18? I don't remember. I'd be most of you don't either. The league needs to loosen the rules a little bit. Allow good teams to keep their team together at least a little longer. Stop over punishing teams with money to float teams that don't have it. Not the whole way, but at least a little.
Anaheim, Penguins, Kings, Kings, Blackhawks, Capitals. Three of those cups were franchise firsts, the Pens was Crosby's first. But, respectfully, these teams aren't built identically. Or close to it. All of them have very clear focuses on a style others didn't. And I don't even consider myself an active fan anymore. I watch maybe 20 games a season, most of them playoff games. But you're just off with your analysis of what the salary cap has done. The cap has a few issues, but the parity it's brought to the league isn't one of them.
@@cousinpatsey2471 In your opinion. I think it has. Once my team is out I really don't care about the other teams cause they're all basically the same. 4 or 5 good players and a bunch of depth that is decent but not interesting. And my team is included in that design.
This is why I still say 99 would probably be noticeably better than the best today. The Gretzky gap. There were great players in his day. Dione, Yzerman, Mario etc...and aside from that one 199 Mario season, nobody was ever really close in anything. If 99 was around today, he'd train just like all the guys today and be that much better for it. Similarly if you put guys like Crosby and McDavid back in that era, they would have behaved like guys back then. Because of D I don't think 99 would have put up 200 plus point seasons, but I do think that when guys now are getting 140 - 150, Gretz would be putting up 170 to 190 type seasons. The percentage gap he had would carry over and is timeless. Someday the next Gretz will come, and gap the competition like he did, but nobody since really has.
you have to consider the fact that in the Gretzky era there were approximately 7 times less hockey players yet still 2/3rds the amount of teams. This made it approximately 5 times easier to make the nhl. Players aren’t just getting better, but there is significantly more competition. Back in the 80s 1 in 350 hockey players made the nhl, today it is 1 in 1800. This statistically speaking means that 80% of nhl players in the 80s wouldn’t have even made the nhl today because now there are 5 times more players to compete against for each spot.
In order to make the nhl today have the same level of competition as in the 80s (having the best player out of every 350 make the nhl) you would need 160 nhl teams. People often fail to realize how much higher the level of competition is today. If mcdavid was in a league with 160 teams, he’d certainly be giving Gretzky a run for his money.
In terms of being dominant as well. Statistically speaking there will never be a player as dominant as Gretzky again. Due to the fact that there are 7 times more players, for every 1 generational player back then you’ll have 7 today, making it signficantly harder to create a large gap
One of your best videos imo. I think the next steps will be: Defene systems will slowly understand how to play better against this kind of hockey. Goalkeepers will adapt and young new stars will force the players to come up with a new meta. During that time scoring will go down. When both of these eventually peak together the offense will try something new as well. Repeat.
The gap between 1st line and 4th line now is the smallest it has ever been. Elite players from the 80s and 90s looked much more elite and affected play so much because getting the elite players out against a 3rd or 4th line would be the equivalent of having an elite star today playing a local beer leaguer.
thats true, the superstars stand out less than they did in the past, now you have to pay attention to little things they do to really see why they are elite
look al the same ! 3rd line was defender and 4rd line goons and that was fun to was like reflex goalie not boring same butterfly style ou defense are all look alike ! No caracter Makar, Hughes and Hudson Skate new way the U18 Learn it to that would be not that special at all in 5 years !
Just drafted a fantasy hockey team for the first time in 15 years and generally getting back into watching the game. The number and depth of quality players really does feel unrivaled by any other sport.
Florida's win over Edmonton last June was an example of how teams that can play lock-down defense and have lights-out goaltending win championships. True, Edmonton came roaring back after being down 3-0 to tie the series and force game 7 - but the Panthers won it by forcing their style of play back into the series. This is against a couple of guys whose Hall of Fame credentials are already primed and ready - McDavid and Draisaitl - the most-potent 1-2 punch in the game this side of Malkin-Crosby. All due respects to McDavid, I think Barkov or Bobrovsky should have won the Conn Smythe Award. The Panthers just played a suffocating team game.
@@GeorgiaBoy1961 Florida has more offensive talent than most NHL teams, and that is also important. If you play a lockdown defensive system without offensive talent, and ability, you find yourself behind and you are utterly screwed.
@@MP-dn4bs- Yes, that's certainly right. You have to be able to put the puck in the net as well as keep it out. FLA is not only potent offensively, but has scoring depth and exceptional balance up and down the line-up.
I cant believe the shot at 1:48 that was incredible he was falling to the ice and did a over the head back hand no look flick on an extreme angle right past the defender and goalie. I had to watch it multiple times to even understand what happened.
Who the hell likes to watch low scoring games anyways? There's always those boring people but that's a very small small majority. Hockey is better when games are 6-5 every night.
Bob's your Uncle. Oops, your Uncle is in net. Great insight with this video! Alex Mogilnys' 1st game and 1st goal was my insight to the future of speed and skill in hockey. Thanks for very cool video! Oh, was it not Bobby Orr that started the defence going in as a scoring force?
I don't know much about hockey, but this seems to be a trend in a lot of places. Even, like, Call of Duty matchmaking. People seem to be getting better at their preferred game/sport faster than ever before and it's fascinating to see
Your slapshot section of the video was interesting to me. Definitely agree that quick release is the new trend nowadays with the limited time and space. Despite this, I still see players pull it out from time to time. Example - as an Oilers fan, Evan Bouchard is one of the few players in the league that has the slapshot in his arsenal still and uses it often to beat goalies from distance. I'd love for you to do a video on guys like him who still utilize this lost art.
People underestimate how much new and lighter equipment for both player and goalies are responsible for this. If players today played with equipment from the 70s and 80s the game would look a lot different.
All valid points. Don't forget the elimination of hooking, holding, cross-checking in the paint on the PP (replaced by 'fronting'), the red line, physical intimidation, hockey sticks (I don't call what yhe players use now hockey sticks), ... The other day I was talking to a guy about hockey and I said I don't watch hockey anymore because the players are too good now. The game has shifted to emphasis on individual skills and away from team.
@@doctorcane I didn't say it made sense. I was having a conversation about hockey and I said that I don't really watch anymore - I can't put my finger on it, but I just don't like the game right now. Too much emphasis on niffy skilly stuff - like shooting the puck from between yr legs, the lacrosse shite, the flex on the sticks and the ridiculous 'wrist shots', shootouts. I don't like the game without the red line - just incessant 'stretch passes'. BUT in possible contradiction to all that, I absolutely love watching Conner McDavid. He's obviously super skilled, but he also plays with heart, and is a good setup/team player. He doesn't do the show off moves -
Good vid. Seems that goaltenders need to evolve past the over-reliance on the RVH and butterfly while getting more creative in how to respond to modern shooters.
Brodeur deserves mention with Roy and Hasek. Especially considering the Devils dominated the NHL for over a decade with their defense/trap system/and the GOAT goalie
Players today have ample instances to get drilled, because the fear isn't there as much because hitting is down, and subsequent fighting is down. It'd be nice to see some big hits again and/or fights, the pure skill game isn't fun to watch without the potential of the other elements
Era of internet, online video and social media make it easier for new players to learn new skills online which wasn’t available back then. Even reviewing previous games (flohockey) and training can be captured easily using mobile phones.
You also occasionally hear about rule changes made for the purpose of "speeding up the game" increase scoring, safety or what have you. It could be the results of slight gradual rule changes, (and all the other stuff you talk about).
But what is “too good” and what is “the offense having an edge”? We can all agree the 80’s scoring is abnormally high, and that the dead puck era was abnormally low. But right now, I’d argue we’ve come to a point where the balance between offense and defense is perfect. The average game has enough goals to make it exciting, but it’s still possible to play shutdown hockey. The current champions just won that way, keeping the best player we’ve ever seen off the scoresheet for the last two games of the finals. Defense can still win you games, goalies can still steal a game, but offense is skilled enough that a two goal lead in the third isn’t game over by any stretch. We’re at a point in the sport’s history where both styles are viable, the game is exciting for the whole 60 minutes, and we’re even getting a resurgence of physical play as well. This is the highest quality of hockey we’ve ever seen IMO and the sport seems to have found its balance
Just like with playing guitar, painting and many other things, the average skillset tends to increase with time. In 30 years we'll be looking at todays NHL wondering why we praised some players. Humans just get better at things the longer we do it.
I agree
Does it though? I feel like painting and guitar are pretty capped. They’re not really measured by statistics like sports.
Yep I agree. People whine about Gretz not actually being that good but for his time, relative to the league he was incredible.
New technology and newer ways to train will continue to increase efficiency and overall average abilities.
At what point does defense prevail?
@@tylerriggs95As a professional musician with thirty years of playing time, he’s absolutely correct. Guitar is NOT capped. The kids today make guys like VanHalen, Steve Vai and Hendrix look like beginners technically. The players have continued evolving thanks to the internet.
As a goaltender of 11 years, nothing gets you worse than shots right above the hips. You want to extend your arm out as your taught, but it just opens up holes
Just scored one there last game, underrated spot ngl
That above the pad below the elbow armpit spot is definitely brutal to me as a noob beer-league goalie of 2.5 years experience lol. I have had to really think and readjust to challenge and stay square to the shooter, focus on my angle, keep my hips up, arms out, trying to make saves out in front of my pads, get right over the puck and attack the angle up close, etc. The thing is, the better these NHL players get, the better everyone else gets though watching their techniques and how they play, and learning how they learn, especially through formal training, so yeah, NHL is obviously elite, but everyone that plays the sport has gotten better and better even recreationally over the past 50 years haha
Can you not adjust to take that away? They know guys like kane are gonna try there most of the time. Forward speaking here, excuse my ignorance
@@louiehunter6490 one, it's a tricky shot to read. Goalies have to realize they aren't making a typical blocker or glove save where they extend, but instead must contract, or "close the holes." This feels odd because it's essentially a blocking style save on a reaction type shot (glove or blocker saves)
@@louiehunter6490 I've certainly had to, for me it involves trying to avoid double coverage, getting your hands forward and low over the puck when the shooter is close, keeping your elbows tight to your body, and doing what you can to seal any holes, but that's most effective with good positioning and a good challenge on a straight-on shot. With all that, I've gotten a lot better at avoiding those goals and stopping more with my hands, arms, and good positioning. When moving laterally though, a lot of that can go out the window for me, and it's harder to stay square and get your whole body in front of a shooter, especially on a one timer. Even when you get a zinger going 14 inches above the ice from an aware shooter in the slot to the very far side of the net one way or another, trying to move your whole body enough to the side and catch a piece of it with your blocker can be really tough, and often ends up going over my pad and just beside / under my blocker or glove. Cant quite turn myself into a 3 foot high half-wall in the splits like Jonathan Quick can haha
Re: the slapshot. Equipment has changed so much in the past 20 years. Have a look at 7:18 in this vid. The amount of flex in the stick is wild. Players used wood sticks up until the 1990's, which made the slapshot a necessity as it gave the puck more velocity than a wrister. But now with these flexy sticks, you can get a lot of inertia on the stick from a "snap shot". So it's not just about the skill level; it's the development in the equipment as well when you compare eras such as the Gretzky era to now... Just an observation that may get overlooked. Great video!
Good point. If only the NHL had got ahead of this trend and kept wood sticks mandatory like MLB did the bats. It would look a lot different out there.
They banned aluminum baseball bats in the MLB for good reason.
@@WTFlacky titanium would be better
@@WTFlacky
what's the reason?
sorry, baseball idiot here
@@JackAndTheBeanstalkr nah. lead bats few
Scoring is up because the NHL took active measures to increase scoring. Everyone wants to think it's because players are more skilled or better trained. Sure, that's a part of it, but it's not the main reason. The main reason is that the NHL took active measures to increase scoring. They cracked down on the clutch and grab part of the game. They did this in numerous ways. Calling interference more, slashing more, holding more, etc. Another thing the NHL did was to eliminate the two line pass and the crease rule. Goalies had got into the habit of wearing giant pads and gear. The NHL cracked down on that and streamlined goalie pads. They took OT and made it 3 on 3. All of that together has increased scoring. Make no mistake. Goals are up because Bettman wanted goals to go up.
Spot on 100%
The NHL did most of those rule changes after the 05 lockout and yet scoring absolutely plummeted during 2010-2016.
The main reason why scoring is exploding is the NHL expansion, shrinking of goalie equipment and the explosion of offensive talent entering the league compared to goaltending. The league doesn’t have a Price, Lundqvist, and Quick type of goalie anymore.
@@RytheCodplayer the pad streamlining was a rule change. They just started cracking down on slashing like 3 years ago. They increased holding calls over the last two years substantially. It's been an ongoing effort that's now bearing fruit. All these younger NHL fans seem to think guys in the 90's weren't talented. Take Fedorov, Jagr, Bure, Tkachuk, Kovalev, etc etc and put them into today's league. Fedorov could play every position, including defense, and be elite at it. Name a guy today who does that.
@@RytheCodplayer And yes they do have goalies like that. Bob, Vasilevsky, Shesterkin, Hellebuyck.. the list goes on and on. The Dead puck era was a result of the trap, clutch and grab, giant equipment, and dangerous blindsided hits. McDavid would NEVER do half the things he does if you took him to 1996 and Scott Stevens was on the ice.
Spot on! And this video probably needs a part 2
Every video is awesome. Not the brain rot content or ranking videos from all these other channels. This man knows his hockey. After playing hockey for 20 years im happy to learn the from this young man
HP is the best.
Great stuff
It's the way all modern media is. So much competition out there, it's hard to make a name for yourself. You only get advertising $$ if you get lots of views/clicks.
Easiest way to generate engagement?
Through click-bait headlines or wildly controversial opinions.
Same reason why TSN/Sportsnet have Leafs stuff every single day. They know love or hate, the Leafs generate views.
Hockey Psycho is 378-0, never misses
Hybrid Sticks, Shrunk the goalies equipment, added the trapezoid, removed the 2 line offside pass, handcuffed the defenseman with rules....gee I wonder why scoring is up?
Exactly ! my mind !
Yeah he mentions how players are too good, but the defensemen have all improved too. They just cant out-defend rules that promote scoring (Which equals excitement to casuals and dollars I guess, or something.)
He had me that players were becoming too skilled, then all of a sudden at the end of the video he introduces huge variables that account for all the changes that have occurred. While players are becoming more skilled we clearly cannot conclude that being the ultimate factor given these other drastic changes
Defense is an art. It requires skill. If they can't play, then they can't play.
The rules designed to punish defense is similar to what the NBA has been suffering from the past 4 years. It makes games kinda boring imo.
Safe to say that Hockey Psychology, Baseball doesnt exist, and jxmyhighroller are trifecta of sport analysis
football analysis too
*Thinking Basketball
HIGLY recommend Michael MacKelvie. He’s an amazing channel for sports analysis
Jomboy as well
@@Derberbeveyou gotta listen to brett kollmann if you like football
Can you do a video on the PWHL? Because it pretty well has the opposite issue, it's a goalie league, every goalie last season finished with the a save percentage at or above .900. Combined with the fact that the skill level of the players in the PWHL is absurd (Olympic and IIHF champions galore), it would be interesting to see why goaltending is/was the dominant factor in the inaugeral season.
Yes please!! I second this!! I would love to see a full hour + on the differences in gameplay between the NHL and PWHL. I love both leagues but Hockey Psychology always puts it into words that I can't find
My guess would be the most of the physiological differences between men and women aren't prominent factors in goaltending. It's so technical and reaction based, not much to do about muscle mass or power output. If you ever watch a skate where there's men and women goalies there is not much of a difference between the two genders doing the same drills. So in the PWHL you've got goalies who could be competitive at the higher levels of the men's game going against a slower tempo and shots not as fast
No
@@internetaccount9010yes and no. But mostly yes
Probably tends to women taking less risks and being more defensive less aggressive in nature minus a FEW outliers (nurse, miler)
Every fourth-line player can pick the top corner if given enough time and a bit of luck. The 4th line players now would have been top 6 in the 80s and 90s, it is crazy.
yeah but that's not really true because it wouldn't work like that. If guys from today were back then they would behave like they did back then. If 99 were around today he would have trained like guys today and been even more scary.
Almost every player in the league now would be better than Gretzky in the 80s.
@@BeautifulBCHomes not even remotely true
No
Lemieux, Gretzky's contemporary, came back during Sidney Crosby's tenure, and he still dominated even after cancer and years not playing. So, no you're wrong.
At the heart of hockey will always lay the great debate: Speed and Skill vs. Size and Physicality. Physicality IS how you cancel out speed effectively. But the speed keeps going up.
I think there is still some merit to big back ends, especially deep in the playoffs.
You could be right. Big D's seem to be having success lately. But a lot of those guys are highly mobile now too.
@@doublestrokerollBig D’s?
@@lilbiggs4661 Rules and equipment have a big impact on that
Physicality is still paramount in hockey, look at the Florida panthers. Rarely the most skilled team on the ice but they seem to win just fine
@@justinjacinto4350 They had a ton of talent. Reinhart, Barkov, Montour, Bobrovsky, Tkachuk, Bennet, etc. I think they have one of the best talent pools in the league.
I freaking love these analysis videos. They not only give me more insight onto the history of the sport, but give me more insight on some of the tactics that are used.
As a new fan of hockey that started watching last season, these videos are really good.
Great video, I know nothing about hockey and your annotations made it way easier to understand what you were saying and you presented it in a really engaging way.
@hockeypsychology got me hip to Pinholes Graham. Glad to see them collaborating - two of the best channels on TH-cam!
The ice is just too small now. In the 70s the ice was great but now the players are so much bigger and faster that it’s just ridiculous.
it’s to impractical for teams to expand the ice
No
Love to hear you're collabing with Pinholes Graham. We need more hockey content. You guys go where The Hockey Guy can't.
Again, this is a fantastic channel. Not just for Hockey but for sports in general! Keep up the great work!
This channel is so underrated
this video is a non-issue. average 3 goals per team each game makes the game exciting. any less than that makes more boring low scoring games
This is one of the most well put together videos I've ever watched... and I've literally watched all of youtube
I don't understand why this isn't Americas biggest sport. seems way more exciting then any other and its violent which ik you guys love
The same reason why soccer isn't as popular in the US as it is internationally. Most Americans want sports with constant scoring
hockey is wildly popular here make no mistake, there’s no shortage of revenue and fans, but, the greatest “barrier” it faces in being “the biggest sport in the US is that it’s not a very good spectator sport compared to a few other major ones. The puck moves fast which is fun but the action is harder to follow for a layman compared to football, basketball and baseball. And finally, the sport is extremely locked, in regards to entering the sport, by a considerable financial burden. It’s an expensive sport to play so only a certain person with the means can participate. Compared to the previously state sports, the cost of playing is much less than hockey like quite notably. All things considered, hockey as in the NHL is one of the biggest professional sports leagues in American History with no sign of stopping anytime soon. It’s still love my millions from all corners of the country.
@@Chuck25o4mit’s more so that it is much less accessible than other sports. Super expensive and much less accessible
@@floufay5209If it was just about accessibility then soccer would be the most popular sport in American like it is in the rest of the world. Soccer is the most accessible least expensive sport
Look at the old 80's and 90's games. The games were much slower in pace because the players were much slower. There was much more time for beautiful passing combinations and the players who were actually fast (Bure, Kariya, Selanne, Datsyik) were shining much more because the skating speed differences between these fast forwards and gigantic D-men like Hatcher, Pronger were so obvious. I'm not sure how much removing the 2-line pass changed it but I find it much more enjoyable to watch games from the 90's because of the slower pace. Also the goalies have improved tremendously and they're much bigger (like 6'3 now).
Sure the players are much better athletes now and there's no going back. But I'm not sure if the overall experience has improved.
I totally agree. The games in the 90,s definitely better than today
I feel like nowadays you basically never see nice passing plays in 5 on 5 play. Everything is centered around powerplays while 5 on 5 is basically chip and grind constant garbage shots from the point, with the occasional odd man rush coming from broken plays.
I can watch games from the 80s and 90s anytime and they're mostly all entertaining the modern NHL is incredibly boring to me.
I am pretty new to watching hockey, and I love your videos to understand the game better! Definitely the easiest sport to turn on and just be laser focused on the game.
I have never played hockey, never watched it, searched it, or had any interest in hockey, and I am not sure why this video was recommended to me. But I really enjoyed this video going to check it out now.
I took a 10(ish) year break from paying attention to the NHL, and just picked it up again last season during the playoffs. My face was pretty much the 😳 emoji while watching the first few games after I got back in- I get that all sports evolve over time, and there are rule changes to factor in as well, but holy crap the skill level of the players nowadays is really something else!
This must be a fairly new thing. I went to a MN wild game maybe 8 years ago? I was honestly pissed i paid for the ticket. Haven't been to or watched a game since. It was one of the laziest, slowest games of hockey i had ever seen. And it was both teams! My peewee coach would have had us skating lines for a week straight if we had played like that. Then i went to a UMD game, way better. Guys actually skating like they meant it. I was absolutely convinced that any decent high school team in MN would have destroyed those NHL teams if they played like that. I grew up watching guys like Mike Modano, Neal Broten and the like. Guys that skated hard.
I'll have to watch a new game, if they are actually putting in some hustle, I might give it another shot. If not, I'll just stick to college games.
@@Z287899personally I will still watch games from the 80s and 90s on TH-cam. But I will not watch anything in the modern NHL
As someone far removed from the world of hockey since the 2010s when I graduated, this video got me hyped to watch some NHL man great video.
I think the slapshot was more relevant in an era where heavy wooden sticks were bad for a quick release. With the modern snapshot, you are sacrificing; if any at all, puck speed, for an unexpected quick release that catches the goalies off guard.
Great video. You really make these concepts easier to understand for an average fan and beer leaguer.
Ya the training and strategy has improved but its mainly the rules and equipment change. If you took the top teams from today and made them play against the late 90s/early 00 Devils with early 00 rules and equipment I think the Devils and their trap would win. For me i prefer old school smash mouth hockey rather than pure skill game. Same with football.
As someone who enjoys watching from time to time but never played and doesn’t know the game at all… this is cool and extremely helpful to see broken down.
I love how many of the newer clips show how "positionless" hockey has become. So much fun to watch.
What a great analysis! I started watching (and playing Hockey) in 1983 when i was 8, I'm 49 now and i recently got interested again in the NHL. The talent level is superb
People always talk about when we get the next great forward. Since Gretzky left, Ovi, Crosby, Kane, MacKinnon, McDavid, Matthews, whoever. All of those guys have at one point or another lived up the hype around them. At this point I’m not worried about who the next Gretzky will be, I want to see who the next Hasek will be. We havent seen a Goaltender of that caliber in decades, Price was close, but I’m not sure if there ever will be an innovator like that with a completely unheard of style that has never been used before and yet to be replicated since.
I've thought about this a fair bit and I blame teams. They really seem to baby goalies now. Take my team, for example. The Canucks totally babied Demko. The guy was the second goalie taken in his draft year and clearly hugely talented, but didn't become a regular until he was 24. How's a guy ever going to be the next Roy if they can't get into the net before a quarter of their career is over?
I get that some guys need development time. Canucks have a great example in that too, with Silovs. But a guy like Demko should have been thrown into the fire when he was 20 or 21. He had the mentality. And it seems like fans go along with it too. Thinking everyone needs time in the minors. No they don't. Some guys are ready to go right away and need the top level or their bored.
As far as an "innovator" goes...I think that gets harder and harder as time goes on. There are only so many more movements that exist. Most of them have already been tried and boiled down to what works. It will now be more of compensating. Goalies will begin to tighten up the things shooters are exposing like in the video, and then shooters will compensate and on and on back and forth. And over shorter periods of time. Eventually scoring will probably just flat line to a relatively consistent level.
@@doublestrokeroll You know there are other leagues than the NHL right? Demko was playing games before 24. Lol. He was the starter in the AHL and developed there. Same thing with Markstrom. He was floundering before that last season with the Comets and breaking out with us the year after. This is the catch 22. If they throw him to the wolves at 20 years old, people are like "Why did they rush him and not develop him properly?" And if you develop him properly but has unforseen injury problems people are like "clearly they babied him cause they didn't throw a 20 year old kid into the starter's crease." Old heads really have the dumbest takes.
@@JeremyCuddles what the hell are you talking about...I'm OBVIOUSLY talking about the NHL level. geezus....wtf....
I get you're 14 years old...but ffs.....
@doublestrokeroll how is a guy going to become the next Roy when his team throws him to the wolves before he's ready, and ruins his confidence before his abilities can match it?
Goalies are the longest position to develop for a number of reasons. Very few are ready for regular NHL play at age 20. Demko wasn't one of them. Coaches and GMs don't bury players in the minors for half a decade because they can, but they also don't pull players up for showing flashes of their ability. Demko wasn't ready when you think he was. And if they put him in, there's little chance he'd have become as good as he is.
@@cousinpatsey2471 How do you know he's not ready until you give him a shot? Demko was most certainly one of them. The guy's psychology is off the charts and was the moment he turned pro. He was bored in the AHL and it was obvious. Not to mention I believe it pissed him off too judging by a few comments back in the day by him and his agent.
But you're entitled to your opinion. We can disagree about this.
This is why I subed. My knowledge was summed up in the first 10 sec.
1:45 clip in Datsyuk between Crosby and Ovy :)
Great video! One small correction, Jacques Lemaire stated the Devils didn't originate the Trap. He had played in that style as a member of the Habs in the 1970s. They just scored so much that nobody thought it was boring lol
I know it's hockey psychology and not hockey English class, but it's training regimen, not regiments. Regiment is a group of soldiers. Thanks for the videos
Thank god for youtube!!..you don't see analysis like this in mainstream outlets! Awesome channel.
“I’m better than everyone that has ever been in the NHL” -Mohammad Ali
I think it's a natural development of the game as equipment improves/changes and rules are adapted to emphasise the skill and speed over physicality and strength.
"Slapshot has gone extinct" Draisaitl with the slapshot in shootout same day ahaha
Concise yet detailed, well presented and properly paced.
Excellent video. Take my like.
Also got 4th lines that can actually score and produce now. Not just brawl lol
Probert, Simon, Barnaby, Macarthy could score goals !
I don't ever watch NHL and I don't follow this channel, but I loved this video anyways, cheers mate.
Bring back checking, fighting and the goons.
Neat. Very cool in depth explanation of dynamics of shooters and goalies. 👌This stuff is usually almost invisible to the eye but as always love the analysis.
Expansion and watering down the talent pool also contributes the the scoring trend. You can see the same pattern after every NHL game expansion, scoring increased.
What a great video. It is insane how skilled the players in the NHL are today.
Most underrated hockey channel on TH-cam!
dang these videos are extremely informative, great channel
carbon fiber sticks are the reason for the advancement. In college guys were using 110 flex sticks. Now I go down to the rink and there are grown men using 70 flex sticks. That used to be a child’s stick flex.
I was a pure defensive player with slap shot power hand with that new stick ultra light it's easy to past defender I'm 45 ! in one season i past to 3 goal season to an 1 goal game player plus ponts by game ! Skates and Stick are the reason nothing more ! Give same stick and skate on young gen player ! You will see goal drop like never and give back the rules to defense to be able to hit like before and hook, and interfere the truth is the game evolve for offence ! But only only one goal better !
fantastic video man, loved every minute!
changes in rules have the most impact
This video gave me a really cool idea for a movie. Thank you for the inspiration!
Thanks for getting me into hockey man. This is a really good channel
I do agree) In current NHL to be a good player isn't enough. You have to be exceptional in some skill and always improving on others
I think we can thank Cory Hirsh. Remember that video he did for TSN or Sportsnet or whatever, showing how you could shrink goalie pads to make them more reasonable? They were getting ridiculous.
As an older 80's fan I definitely think the quality of hockey has never been better than it is today. It's now struck a great balance between great O and great D. It's exciting and the skill really is off the charts.
But I do have one fairly big problem with it. The cap rules are much too strong. I used to think parity through the league would be a good thing but I don't anymore. I don't want to go back to a one team dynasty for half a decade, but I do think that with so many teams being basically identical, and every year a any of 10 to 15 teams could win the Cup, it's kind of made the cup less special. In 5 years the only people who will remember the Panthers winning the cup will be Florida fans. (no offense, same for nearly every other winner). Without looking, who won the cup in 07? 09? 12? 14? 15? 18? I don't remember. I'd be most of you don't either.
The league needs to loosen the rules a little bit. Allow good teams to keep their team together at least a little longer. Stop over punishing teams with money to float teams that don't have it. Not the whole way, but at least a little.
I can name every cup winner from 1989 to now lol. Also there hasn’t been a team that won non stop for half a decade
@@Lrossi18 OK...good for you. Not many are that dorky.
Anaheim, Penguins, Kings, Kings, Blackhawks, Capitals. Three of those cups were franchise firsts, the Pens was Crosby's first.
But, respectfully, these teams aren't built identically. Or close to it. All of them have very clear focuses on a style others didn't.
And I don't even consider myself an active fan anymore. I watch maybe 20 games a season, most of them playoff games. But you're just off with your analysis of what the salary cap has done. The cap has a few issues, but the parity it's brought to the league isn't one of them.
@@cousinpatsey2471 In your opinion. I think it has. Once my team is out I really don't care about the other teams cause they're all basically the same. 4 or 5 good players and a bunch of depth that is decent but not interesting. And my team is included in that design.
12 14 Kings 10 13 15 Hawks but the cap era it to show player to not be to greedy to keep teamates !
Half the reason I’m so excited for this years hockey season is this channel
we need another scott stevens in the league
Rempe, Wiki !
Really Well done. Thanks for Making this Video
This is why I still say 99 would probably be noticeably better than the best today. The Gretzky gap. There were great players in his day. Dione, Yzerman, Mario etc...and aside from that one 199 Mario season, nobody was ever really close in anything. If 99 was around today, he'd train just like all the guys today and be that much better for it. Similarly if you put guys like Crosby and McDavid back in that era, they would have behaved like guys back then. Because of D I don't think 99 would have put up 200 plus point seasons, but I do think that when guys now are getting 140 - 150, Gretz would be putting up 170 to 190 type seasons. The percentage gap he had would carry over and is timeless. Someday the next Gretz will come, and gap the competition like he did, but nobody since really has.
I tend to think that as well. The best will find ways to be the best whenever, whereever.
you have to consider the fact that in the Gretzky era there were approximately 7 times less hockey players yet still 2/3rds the amount of teams. This made it approximately 5 times easier to make the nhl. Players aren’t just getting better, but there is significantly more competition. Back in the 80s 1 in 350 hockey players made the nhl, today it is 1 in 1800. This statistically speaking means that 80% of nhl players in the 80s wouldn’t have even made the nhl today because now there are 5 times more players to compete against for each spot.
In order to make the nhl today have the same level of competition as in the 80s (having the best player out of every 350 make the nhl) you would need 160 nhl teams. People often fail to realize how much higher the level of competition is today. If mcdavid was in a league with 160 teams, he’d certainly be giving Gretzky a run for his money.
In terms of being dominant as well. Statistically speaking there will never be a player as dominant as Gretzky again. Due to the fact that there are 7 times more players, for every 1 generational player back then you’ll have 7 today, making it signficantly harder to create a large gap
@@floufay5209 total nonsense.
One of your best videos imo.
I think the next steps will be: Defene systems will slowly understand how to play better against this kind of hockey. Goalkeepers will adapt and young new stars will force the players to come up with a new meta. During that time scoring will go down. When both of these eventually peak together the offense will try something new as well. Repeat.
The gap between 1st line and 4th line now is the smallest it has ever been. Elite players from the 80s and 90s looked much more elite and affected play so much because getting the elite players out against a 3rd or 4th line would be the equivalent of having an elite star today playing a local beer leaguer.
thats true, the superstars stand out less than they did in the past, now you have to pay attention to little things they do to really see why they are elite
look al the same ! 3rd line was defender and 4rd line goons and that was fun to was like reflex goalie not boring same butterfly style ou defense are all look alike ! No caracter Makar, Hughes and Hudson Skate new way the U18 Learn it to that would be not that special at all in 5 years !
Just drafted a fantasy hockey team for the first time in 15 years and generally getting back into watching the game. The number and depth of quality players really does feel unrivaled by any other sport.
Bro said 4 major sports and didnt mention football, thats crazy, murica must be the star of our system.
He did show football tho
I don't even like hockey, still watched the whole thing. Nice work, thanks ❤
And defense still wins championships.
Colorado '22 is the big counter-example here.
if that were true, Nashville would've won in 2017
Florida's win over Edmonton last June was an example of how teams that can play lock-down defense and have lights-out goaltending win championships. True, Edmonton came roaring back after being down 3-0 to tie the series and force game 7 - but the Panthers won it by forcing their style of play back into the series. This is against a couple of guys whose Hall of Fame credentials are already primed and ready - McDavid and Draisaitl - the most-potent 1-2 punch in the game this side of Malkin-Crosby. All due respects to McDavid, I think Barkov or Bobrovsky should have won the Conn Smythe Award. The Panthers just played a suffocating team game.
@@GeorgiaBoy1961 Florida has more offensive talent than most NHL teams, and that is also important.
If you play a lockdown defensive system without offensive talent, and ability, you find yourself behind and you are utterly screwed.
@@MP-dn4bs- Yes, that's certainly right. You have to be able to put the puck in the net as well as keep it out. FLA is not only potent offensively, but has scoring depth and exceptional balance up and down the line-up.
I cant believe the shot at 1:48 that was incredible he was falling to the ice and did a over the head back hand no look flick on an extreme angle right past the defender and goalie. I had to watch it multiple times to even understand what happened.
Who the hell likes to watch low scoring games anyways? There's always those boring people but that's a very small small majority. Hockey is better when games are 6-5 every night.
Bob's your Uncle. Oops, your Uncle is in net. Great insight with this video! Alex Mogilnys' 1st game and 1st goal was my insight to the future of speed and skill in hockey. Thanks for very cool video! Oh, was it not Bobby Orr that started the defence going in as a scoring force?
"across all 4 major sports" just shows sports that are only popular in north america...
Basketball and hockey are also big in Europe
As a developing player this video was not only fun to watch but it also helped improve my game
Spoiler Alert:
Yes
thank you for your hard work, really loving your content
I swear I saw a video a year ago saying that Old players were “more violent” because rookies learn a different game where you assume safety
Excellent breakdown and analysis. I may have to re-subscribe to your channel. 😊
Keep expanding the league, the whole “watering down talent” will be a positive
I don't know much about hockey, but this seems to be a trend in a lot of places. Even, like, Call of Duty matchmaking. People seem to be getting better at their preferred game/sport faster than ever before and it's fascinating to see
Bro your 20yrs behind. Its hilarious you're doing this. Great show 😂❤
Your slapshot section of the video was interesting to me. Definitely agree that quick release is the new trend nowadays with the limited time and space. Despite this, I still see players pull it out from time to time. Example - as an Oilers fan, Evan Bouchard is one of the few players in the league that has the slapshot in his arsenal still and uses it often to beat goalies from distance. I'd love for you to do a video on guys like him who still utilize this lost art.
:0 almost at 200k subs, i remember you were at like 50k before last season
People underestimate how much new and lighter equipment for both player and goalies are responsible for this. If players today played with equipment from the 70s and 80s the game would look a lot different.
All valid points. Don't forget the elimination of hooking, holding, cross-checking in the paint on the PP (replaced by 'fronting'), the red line, physical intimidation, hockey sticks (I don't call what yhe players use now hockey sticks), ...
The other day I was talking to a guy about hockey and I said I don't watch hockey anymore because the players are too good now. The game has shifted to emphasis on individual skills and away from team.
Foward are pussy vs old day ! Lemieux had 2 player on his back ans stile score 5 on 5 !
Cause totay many goal are on 5 vs 4 !
So you don't watch because the players improved their games. Is this real life?
@@doctorcane I didn't say it made sense. I was having a conversation about hockey and I said that I don't really watch anymore - I can't put my finger on it, but I just don't like the game right now. Too much emphasis on niffy skilly stuff - like shooting the puck from between yr legs, the lacrosse shite, the flex on the sticks and the ridiculous 'wrist shots', shootouts. I don't like the game without the red line - just incessant 'stretch passes'. BUT in possible contradiction to all that, I absolutely love watching Conner McDavid. He's obviously super skilled, but he also plays with heart, and is a good setup/team player. He doesn't do the show off moves -
Very interesting video. I’d assume more scoring makes the game better though?
More scoring equals more eyes. Keep it up
Good vid. Seems that goaltenders need to evolve past the over-reliance on the RVH and butterfly while getting more creative in how to respond to modern shooters.
Brodeur deserves mention with Roy and Hasek. Especially considering the Devils dominated the NHL for over a decade with their defense/trap system/and the GOAT goalie
The best hockey channel on TH-cam.
This guy doesn’t miss with his analyses of the league.
This was a master piece !
I don't watch or know anything about hockey, but this was a good watch, thanks!
Players today have ample instances to get drilled, because the fear isn't there as much because hitting is down, and subsequent fighting is down. It'd be nice to see some big hits again and/or fights, the pure skill game isn't fun to watch without the potential of the other elements
Im not even a big hockey guy (Go Islanders still) but this is a great topic and presentation.
Great video!
What is youre background music ?
Era of internet, online video and social media make it easier for new players to learn new skills online which wasn’t available back then. Even reviewing previous games (flohockey) and training can be captured easily using mobile phones.
Really enjoyable analysis.
Dude, I've never watched a hockey game, but this was fascinating.
You also occasionally hear about rule changes made for the purpose of "speeding up the game" increase scoring, safety or what have you. It could be the results of slight gradual rule changes, (and all the other stuff you talk about).
@7:51 is that gandalf or santa in the back left? 🤣
Great video. Well done.
But what is “too good” and what is “the offense having an edge”? We can all agree the 80’s scoring is abnormally high, and that the dead puck era was abnormally low. But right now, I’d argue we’ve come to a point where the balance between offense and defense is perfect. The average game has enough goals to make it exciting, but it’s still possible to play shutdown hockey. The current champions just won that way, keeping the best player we’ve ever seen off the scoresheet for the last two games of the finals. Defense can still win you games, goalies can still steal a game, but offense is skilled enough that a two goal lead in the third isn’t game over by any stretch. We’re at a point in the sport’s history where both styles are viable, the game is exciting for the whole 60 minutes, and we’re even getting a resurgence of physical play as well. This is the highest quality of hockey we’ve ever seen IMO and the sport seems to have found its balance