Advantages...

- To increase true goal scoring and create more offensive play.
- To open up the ice and create more room for the skill player.
- To make the game safer.
- To give the fans a better entertainment package.
- To make a diluted product more acceptable.
- To allow the league to become more cost efficient by addressing "Supply & Demand."
Thus giving "small market" teams a better opportunity for a level playing field.
- To allow the fan to FOLLOW the play better.
- To create more excitement and a better flow to the game.

Like the addition of the "centre-red line", the turn of the last century 7 to 6 skaters, the end of the power play after a goal on a minor penalty. All done for a better entertainment package. All this to create better fan interest and continuing progress to the game. 4-on-4 will allows the game to progress and not break tradition. Change in the NHL has always been it's tradition. Implementing new concepts to the game has always caused contraversy. It's part of the game. Any controversy that gets the fans involved is what makes the game great. Maybe now the "ORIGINAL SIX" contraversy will be squashed, or at least silenced.


Fans are always attracted to skill players and a high calibre of play. However, when the league continued to expand, the pool of skilled players began to dwindle. Thus, the league decided to open their game to the world to get more skilled players. This worked for the first expansion. However, the league continued to expand to a point where the product has become diluted.

Each year we see less skilled players able to play, due to injury. Although they will never admit it, some skill players prolong their injury because they simply don't like the playing environment. I can't say I blame them one bit! Isn't their union concerned about their safety?
Teams now get size players with less skills who crowd the ice surface. Slowing down the game. Fans want to see more of the skilled player. They want to see more of the exciting one-on-one confrontations, end-to-end rushes & open-ice hits. Fans want to be lifted from their seats in appreciation of a play they are about to see, not a goal that just happen to go in unexpectedly. This happens too often. You want to stop a conversation in your living room to see that rink long rush of a Superstar winding up for a scoring chance. This type of open game is better not only for fan viewing, but it brings more fan involvement.

Fans don't want to continuously watch an obstacle course in motion. Fans don't want to see the puck bounce around like a pinball machine and not be able to predict. They want to go to work and be able to describe in detail how they saw a beautiful play or goal from start to finish. Allowing them to say, "Hey I know what I'm talking about". Fans want to see well directed shots at the net and what the goalie is going to do about it. They want to see that long pass hit the tape of a player in motion and ready for the breakaway. 4-on-4 hockey for the entire game will create that missing atmosphere.

In the United States football is played with eleven players on each side compared to twelve players on each side in Canada. The NFL has 4 downs to create more offence to 3 downs in Canada. Goal line to goal line is 10 yards shorter creating more offence. Thus, the field is shorter and narrower. The 4 downs and one less player allowed the game to remain open. The NFL seen the need to inovate to keep the game offensive and exciting. They've been doing this from the time they introduced the forward pass.

All the NHL has to do is introduce 4-on-4 hockey for regular game play and it opens up the game without creating a bigger ice surface. Inovation worked for the NFL, didn't it?Baseball enhanced their game by adding the designated hitter. This allowed more offense to the game and fans accepted it with open arms. It didn't hurt the game one bit. In fact, it allowed star hitters to continue their slugfest much longer to the delight of the fans. The traditionalist eventually came around.Now it's the NHL's turn to change the face of the game and allow a diluted product to become less diluted and more exciting.

Owners have an obligation to put the best possible product on the ice for display. They have an obligation to put a better entertainment package together and deliver it to the fans. So let's see them do it.

Aging players: Today more players are playing beyond their 35th birthday. That's because players play shorter shifts, leaving you the fan only to see a small segement of the skilled player and just as much of the grinder. In other words "You don't get what you paid for at the time". By implementing 4-on-4 hockey you open up the game and the skill player gets exactly what he and the fans want, more of his icetime. These guys skills and speed are limited to age. So lets as fans see what he's capable of at the proper age. Nobody wants to see a skill player hang on because he's still capable of producing half the skill he had, while the youth of today is held back from entertaining us. This is a professional sport and the fans pay to see the best on the ice. Hell even golf has lent way for the grandfather clause by implementing a senior's tour. Perhaps the NHL should look into that format. Calling it the League of Legends.