Steve,
Your slapshot analogy reminded me of when I first took my nephew to the driving range.

He pulled out his driver and never used another club. I asked him why he didn't practice with his seven or nine iron....he said "it's more fun to hit the driver"

When I explained that he might use the driver 12 times during a round of golf and his irons 50-60 times during the same game.....he said "yeah, but it's still more fun to use the driver"......I just shrugged my shoulders.

Several of you have commented about lack of defensive skills. Is it possible that the new Standard of Enforcement has shown a weakness that was always there, just hidden by clutching, grabbing and locking up in the recent past?

I guess defensive skill will now be defined as who can poke check the best.

I disagree, from the devensive stand point, the only thing that has really changed has been the play in front of the net because we can no longer push or tie up anybody but as far as keeping offensmen wide, limiting, and blocking shots the game has not changed, there is just a huge lack in defensemen that know how to play that way either because of bad coaching or the "hero" mindset players get into playing in front of their peers. If defensemen played how they were taught, there would be some steller defensmen in High School