Jury is still out

NHL must evolve to survive

The refs have been calling more penalties and according to NHL vice president Brian Burke the hard line will continue or even tighten.

"We believe the obstruction calls will solve the bulk of our problems and improve the flow of the game," Burke said. "We applaud the referees' work, and have exhorted them to keep it up."

Penalty boxes have been full, but has it increased scoring? Not much. As of March 13 there has been 542 goals scored in 102 post-Olympic games. Teams averaged 5.31 goals per game which is virtually identical with the first half of the season.

There is also the big question of whether the refs will keep calling penalties. Every other time there has been an attempt to enforce rules more strictly it did not last. After a month or so, it was back to business as usual. The big test will be the playoffs to see if this time it is for real.