Bring down the red line!

Sounds familiar? Unfortunately the trend of the nineties, decreasing of scoring, is continuing this year.

The demise of goal scoring has been blamed on many things from bad officiating to better goalies.

Last year the league even cracked down on goalies' pads and blockers. Remember, Patrick Roy was supposed to be a stellar goalie only because his illegal equipment. It didn't work.

There are many factors to why scoring is down. Excessive grabbing and holding, better goalies, more sizable defensemen all play a part. However, the biggest single reason is the proliferation of defensive tactics that clog the middle zone of the ice, collectively known as the "neutral-zone trap".

Using of the "trap" results to boring, defensive-minded hockey that nobody likes. Even many coaches who play it, say that they hate it.

The best thing the NHL could do to counter this is to take the red line out!. This would stretch the game and provide the skill players more room to do their thing. Icing would be called when the puck originates from behind the blue line and the two line offside would stay intact.

There is no other reason than tradition why this hasn't been done already. The league has to wake up and smell the roses and do what is good for the game.