Where did all the shutouts come from?

[Don Cherry]

What happened? They change the pucks for beach balls?

Tonight's action with Goaltender

Carolina 2, Buffalo 0 (Weeks)
New Jersey 1, Philly 0 (Brodeur)
Chicago 5, Atlanta 0 (Thibault)
Montreal 3, NY Isles 0 (Theodore)
NY rangers 1, Calgary 0 (Blackburn)

Turco got one last night for Dallas to boot

[Buffarama]

What happened to the rule changes?
You know what I think? I think the NHL players aren't used to skating, and they can't mantain a wide open pace for 82 games. So they are going back to a lazy style of play.

[Earthquake Enyart]

Dump the puck out to center, scrum around, then if you get it shoot it in. Stickhandling is a lost art.

[Rude American]

I was on espn's hockey page and also noticed the low scoring last night. To me it seems the players are too big, strong and fast anymore. The neutral zone has become so congested with traffic that stickhandling HAS become a lost art. Gone are the days of end to end rushes the way Denis Savard used do.

IOM, there are only two pure stickhandlers left in the game today. Mogilny and Federov. It's like the puck is stuck to their sticks by velcro.

It recently occured to me like a brick falling from the sky, and somone (I think Gretzky) recently said something to the same effect. The way to more entertaining games via increased scoring isn't to eliminate the clutch-grab, but to change it at the source. Either restrict goalie equipment size even more or make the nets a bit bigger. Patrick Roy looks twice as big in there as he did 10 years ago. IMO, that's the real cause of the low scoring.