It seems scoring has been up in the National Hockey League with crooked numbers showing up in box scores so far this season. The San Jose Sharks and New York Rangers recently combined for 11 goals – with New York popping seven in. The game is reaching a peak in terms of excitement with many, many skilled youngsters to watch: Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews, Johnny Gaudreau… the list goes on and on.
With the plethora of high-talent danglers in the league, Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper believes players are too skilled and good to ask them to tame things down.
#Bolts head coach Jon Cooper on if early high-scoring games in NHL will continue throughout the season pic.twitter.com/lhU10gBf6X
— Bryan Burns (@BBurnsNHL) October 18, 2016
As Cooper notes in the end, it will be difficult for the scoring to continue to go this high as goaltenders will soon adjust to a slightly different style of play, but for now, it’s good to hear at least one head coach talk about allowing highly skilled players to do their thing.
The more scoring, the better the NHL product is. Don’t get me wrong, I like a good old fashioned 1-0 game, but there’s more entertainment value seeing the likes of McDavid or Matthews get the chance to completely dominate a game. Scoring rising should make for a more watched, fun broadcast. Everybody (except goalies) should be behind that.
Scoring is growing naturally through pure talent. That’s the best case scenario considering all of the recent talk about expanding nets or shrinking pads.
