NHL GMs brainstorm ideas to increase scoring From streamlining goaltender equipment to the possibility of playing out a full two-minute power play, the NHL GMs spent four hours on Tuesday exchanging ideas about how to increase scoring in the game.

Frank Seravalli TSN Senior Hockey Reporter Follow|Archive

BOCA RATON, Fla. — Tim Murray described it as a riff session.

Thankfully, the Buffalo Sabres’ GM said, there was someone from the NHL present in the room to keep notes as the league’s 30 general managers brainstormed by the beach on Tuesday morning.

They were divided evenly into three groups and asked to kick around a variety of topics, from hits to the head to new ways to create more scoring.

Not every idea is fully formulated or crystallized, but the hope is that assembling 30 of the brightest minds around the sport in the same swanky Boca Beach Club will spark an inventive new approach to a 100-year-old game.

“In these meetings you throw a lot of spaghetti up on the wall,” Predators GM David Poile said.

Most of it doesn’t stick.

“A lot of it will be poo-pooed right away,” Murray said.

It never hurts to try. Red Wings GM Ken Holland championed the idea of 3-on-3 overtime to reduce the number of shootouts for years, but hardly gained any traction until last year.

Finding new ways to increase scoring drew the most passion on Tuesday. The NHL has averaged 5.4 goals per game this season, the fewest in any campaign since 2003-04. Drastic changes to the game followed, of course, over the course of the 2004-05 lockout-canceled season.

The GMs agreed on Tuesday that the most fundamental approach to solving scoring woes is to streamline goaltending equipment. It looks like that will finally happen next season. Blues GM Doug Armstrong said no radical changes can be considered until the impact of those equipment changes (if any) are realized.

That didn’t stop the GMs from knocking around other ideas in their four-hour jam session.

Not every idea, as Poile pointed out, requires a major overhaul to the game.

“When you have a power play at the end of the first period and to start the second period, why have the face-off at center ice?” Poile asked. “Why don’t you have it in the offensive zone? Just lots of those ideas we were talking about.”

There was also consideration given to extending power plays to the full two minutes, meaning teams would be allowed to score at will in a single power play without the penalized player being released. That was the way the NHL traditionally operated until 1956, when a dominant Montreal Canadiens power play forced the change.

Another option given consideration on Tuesday was prohibiting shorthanded teams from icing the puck.

“We’re totally interested,” Murray said. “Our concern in our group was lengthening games. I think short term, (that’s a concern). But I think then you’re going to have more skill, guys flipping pucks (out of the zone). Maybe you’re not going to have that one-dimensional penalty killer anymore. Maybe you have to have more skill killing a penalty because you have less options. It’s going to change things. One decision has a ripple effect.”

The most interesting ideas, though, are always the ones that never make it beyond the brainstorming session.

One idea that received chatter on Tuesday was instituting a time limit for teams who choose not to advance the puck in the absence of forechecking. It would be akin to basketball’s “three in the key” limit, where defenders aren’t allowed to stand in the lane for more than three seconds. The genesis here is to limit how long the puck can rest in the trapezoid behind the net.

“I see guys standing there for five seconds while four other guys change,” Murray said. “Then, he skates away from the puck, but it’s still sitting there and he changes. Then, by the time the new ‘D’ comes on, it’s 20 seconds and we’re still sitting there. Let’s speed it up.”

Murray said he didn’t think that one would receive much consideration, but it was just an idea to bring along and see if someone else could add to it or make it better. Maybe it sparks another thought for another aspect of the game. He did say, though, that changes to the power play to increase offence could be serious contenders depending on the impact of equipment changes.

“These are things that were brought up today that I need to think more about, and the whole group has to hear them more,” Murray said. “But at least we’re talking to try and figure out ways to create more scoring and more offence. That’s what we do. We talk.”

Boca Bytes

Despite a push by Columbus GM Jarmo Kekalainen to adopt the IIHF’s more punitive approach for hits to the head, a 10-member GM group which also included NHL senior vice-president of player safety Stephane Quintal decided there was no appetite to make a change. “We’ve come a long way,” Maple Leafs GM Lou Lamoriello said ... On Wednesday, the GMs will be given an all-important salary cap projection for next season. They will also discuss a potential expansion draft and whether the draft lottery should prevent multiple winners within a short period of time.

Quotable

“I want to make sure I can protect what we have built up here. It’s taken long, hard hours. We see a bright future. I don’t want that taken away from us.”

- Panthers GM Dale Tallon on the prospect of having more young and talented players than ever before eligible to be plucked in a potential expansion draft.

Contact Frank Seravalli on Twitter: @frank_seravalli