I have been slowly considering that maybe it's time for the NHL to go full time 4 on 4. The players are bigger, stronger, faster and smarter than ever before. The irony is, the game isn't as creative or exciting when there seems to be less time and space for the best players to showcase their talent. Also my thought on going 4 on 4 full time is to reduce NHL rosters, cutting 2-4 players from every team (bye bye 4th line plugs) and allow more money to spend on talent. With the Expansion of 2 teams, the time was right for Bettman to cut team rosters but tell the NHLPA those "lost jobs" were going to the 2 new teams.

This literally changes the entire landscape of how to play the game. Growing up, you learn how to play a 5v5 game. Every coach knows how to coach a 5v5 game. Every general manager in the league is building a team around a 5v5 game.

Hockey is a physical game, and there's nothing wrong with the state of 5v5 hockey. Absolutely nothing. The game is fast and physical. It's the most exciting and beautiful game on Earth because of it. Making it 4v4 full time takes away some of what makes hockey the greatest sport ever. It's a terrible, terrible idea.

It's too big a change IMO. I do want fighting removed and lots of people don't just because they think "it's part of the game". It's because they're used to it, and so am I. I've seen a lot of fights over the years, and I hate it. It can change. But 5-on-5 to 4-on-4 would be too big a change, and it's a change to the actual game of hockey. Fighting isn't part of the game. It's a dumb thing that happens between plays sometimes and it sometimes even stops the game and there's no point in it. So many people want to stop concussions so STOP THE FIGHTING NOW. It's stupid. Some players have died from many concussions, and those have been the players who fight a lot. Get it out of the game. It can end careers and occasionally lives. I've never even found it fun to watch. Some say, "Well, if two players are willing to fight it's okay." But it's a waste of time and if the players aren't smart enough to not fight, the league needs to do something about it. You wanna remove the concussions? Stop letting players punch each other in the head a whole bunch of times in a few seconds. It's garbage. That's what it is. 5-on-5 hockey you could say it should have been 4-on-4 but it's too much a part of the game now. The goal in hockey isn't to fight more than the other team. That doesn't even work. If there's a fight, that's one fight for each team. It's about whoever gets the most goals, obviously. That's how you win a hockey game. Changing it to 4-on-4 would change the game too much IMO and idk why but i like it 5-on-5. That's just how hockey works. I love 3-on-3 regular season OT but for most of the game it should be 5-on-5 IMO and i doubt they're going to change that.

To add to your point of safety, the game would be 1000% safer with 4 on 4, the ice is too crowded and players have milliseconds to react in today's fast paced, hard checking, defend game. I've been watching hockey from the 1990's Classic Leaf games on Leaf TV and I've noticed how more exciting the game was. And this is the height of hack, slash, clutch and hold NHL era, yet the game was more enjoyable to watch. Like I said above, today's players are bigger, faster, stronger and smarter than ever before, which leads to less time and space to create.

Greatest game on Earth, yet the majority of Americans would rather watch Nascar, cars driving in circles for 2-3 hours. Or golf, people slowly walking around hitting balls for 3-4 hours.

And reducing the game to 4v4 is going to make more Americans watch? No.

The 4 on 4 overtime was such a hit in the U.S. that Bettman decided to go further and create 3 on 3 O.T. It's only a matter of time before either their becomes less players on the ice or the equipment gets smaller or all the rinks get bigger (not happening).

The NHL's popularity is dwarfed by the NBA, one main reason (without playing the race card) is NBA is non stop offensive and creative plays, NHL is more soccer like than basketball like. Defensive, hard hitting hockey is a turn off, the Americans starting to enjoy the NHL when it was the bandwagon hockey, nightly scores of 7-4, today's NHL we get almost nothing but 3-1 scores.

So your logic for turning the game into a 4 v 4, uprooting the fundamentals of every tactic, position, playstyle and roster, is because Americans need to be constantly entertained.

Bettman logic.

It would also be a lot safer without fighting. You never mentioned a thing about fighting. Making it 4-on-4 is too big a change to the actual game, where removing fighting doesn't make too big a change to the actual game.

That's not why we went to 3-on-3 overtime. It's so overtime games would be more exciting and less games would be decided in the shootout.

Most Americans wont watch hockey because A) the broadcasts are terrible. B) Most people cant find the puck in the arena, never mind on a tv. C) It isnt nationally marketed all the time. I can turn on the tv in a random november night: i get 3-4 basketball game choices, maybe 1-2 hockey choices. and some of them dont even start until 10pm. It all comes down to choice. If you gave americans 3-4 hockey games to watch a night ratings would be up significantly. But give us their local feeds or give us a broader range of national guys. these ones get stale so fast.

As a quick aside to my last post... I do not want 4 on 4 hockey. I want the violence installed back into the game not taken out of it. The game isnt a good product to watch when guys are getting penalties for clean hits.

i don't think bringing back fighting is a good idea, especially with the knowabouts of CTE on athletes

these guys are getting paid to play a game for their career, i want real hits, i want real physicallity. Thats what sold me into hockey to begin with. It is entertainment, people bringing up this CTE garbage... THEY ARE CHOOSING TO PLAY THE SPORT. The knowledge is out there now, dont play, earn millions, and then claim ignorance. 20 years ago when the data may not have been available sure. The data is heavily accessible, they have done so many studies. at this point its on the players to either opt in or out. Game shouldnt be changed because of it. They can sign a waiver if they want to play. If i had their ability i would sign a waiver at the chance to make multi millions to play a game. Sure they deal with some extra injuries but so do people in trades that dont make multi-millions of dollars in a short amount of time.

Completely agree.

What do you mean "real hits"? You want to go back to old-time hockey where you could hit a guy in the head and get away with it? I get it, they're choosing the play the sport, but they don't have the option to choose to play in the NHL without Tom Wilson destroying you. Sammy Blais got away with a bunch of hits that i didn't like in the playoffs but were "clean hits" by the rules ... and you think they should allow what? Hits to the head? Are you serious? You really want to let players do that without getting suspended? What's your opinion on Tom Wilson? I'd be curious to know. He's probably the most hated player in the league (completely understand why) and you think he's playing hockey the way it should be played? He's not.

RAIF, look up scott stevens hits on youtube. THATS what i want to see. I want to see guys getting lined up going over the middle of the ice with their heads down. I want to see submarine hip checks. I want some real hits back in hockey. I DONT necessarily WANT guys to be throwing cheap shots on people or lining up guys heads. suspend them and do whatever you want there. But the NHL is taking all of the physicality out of the game, except playoffs. But now you have an era of hockey that has 2 sets of rules which confuses everyone anyways. I love the way wilson plays minus the headshots that are definitely on purpose if he can keep it clean and deliver punishing hits that arent to the head thats what i want. I also support marchands antics. Im sure this post catches a ton of flack but whatever.

No offense man, but this is a really gross take.

I'm not completely against hits and physicality in the game, but I don't think it should be at the point where a minor mistake like keeping your head down during a single play should give you a permanent brain injury. I don't think it's appropriate to not have any empathy for players because they choose to play the game and they get paid a ton of money to do so. Choosing to play the game doesn't mean you have to line yourself up for a concussion; that's not what the game should be about (and really has never been about; more people are going to remember the goal scorers than a fourth liner giving a kid a concussion).

Players aren't claiming ignorance, they want protection and guarantees from a game that physically wears on their body. Not every players makes millions and not every player lasts for many seasons; the money most players make plateaus off by the time they're in their 30s. Imagine being still in the early parts of your life trying to find a new career and battling/paying for head traumas. This is what players are lobbying for: to make sure they aren't dying early on the street because jackasses like Wilson and Stevens take cheap shots.

I think your point about "two sets of rules" is valid; there should a cohesive balance between how rules are enforced during the season and the playoffs.

A) Players should learn to keep their head up. So many people do it with ease now if you cant keep your head up thats your fault, not the defensemans fault. Why are we capping what the defense is able to do because a minority of players cant keep their head up across the middle of the ice. B) Its also one thing if its a real and clean hit and there is a possible chance there for minor incidental contact (mcavoy to anderson hit where mcavoy hits chest/shoulder first then simultaneously hits his chin) versus where a player just head hunts or gets a clean full on head shot with intent to do so. I dont want guys just targeting star players without repercussion if that happens there needs to be major suspensions think half/full seasons. im not advocating for guys to just start targeting. But if guys are throwing clean hits i want to see them full force. i dont want a god damn charging call if its a real clean hit. That krug hit on rob thomas is a great clean hit. doesnt go for the head. But going back to the original post, violence sells. the more violent the sport the better viewership will be. NFL is in same boat with concussions right if not worse since they happen more often? Their contracts arent even guaranteed. Most players in that league make less or = to what bottom line players make in the nhl. Again, its a game. If you dont want to deal with injuries after your career, maybe dont play the sport and choose a different career. When are we going to start putting some blame on the players for this. Its not like the nhl is the one causing concussions, its other players. Labor trades also wear on the body, over a 30 year career you can expect to have at least one if not more major surgery on different body parts. You just dont make the same amount of money, or get paid to again play a game for entertainment purposes.

I don't buy the violence sells argument. If it did, soccer (real football) wouldn't be growing in North America, and the NBA and MLB wouldn't be as profitable as they are (combined they're make more revenue than the NFL). Speaking of the NFL, they're in an entire league of their own when it comes to concussion and player issues. It's a prime example of why unions exist and why players/workers are entitled to certain rights. They want to play but they don't want to end up dead early because of it, and these owners make enough money of their backs that these concessions can be given. Looking at these people as pawns for entertainment isn't healthy.

MLB is a dying sport, to the point they are juicing the baseballs to increase scoring totals. NBA is a star driven league, they are marketing the game correctly. NFL gets marketed correctly. multiple games on per week, major sunday we get 9 hours of it in a row. Soccer is not growing here as you might actually think. Not even close to hockey which is. Soccer in Europe is popular because its either that or semi pro basketball and hockey leagues. Look at how quickly MMA blew up.

If the MLB is dying, it's dying the slowest death ever. As long as it keeps it's regional TV contracts, it's profitable.

And if soccer is only popular because the rough and tough American Football isn't available in Europe, why did the NFL's Europe project fail, and why is the league struggling to break back into that market? I think you're underestimating the popularity of soccer, especially considering how fast the MLS has expanded.

Last year the UFC put up 660 million in revenue, which would put it above Korea's baseball league but below the second tier of German football. The UFC is also facing a lot of the same issues (!) that NFL and NHL players face: life after.

I'm not looking up Scott Stevens hits because I don't care about his stupid hits. Like the hit on Kariya? You're not saying you want to see that, do you? Scott Stevens hits shouldn't be in the game ... Tom Wilson should stop his stupid hits to the head. Sammy Blais? Why does he have to be making the hits he makes? I was hoping the Bruins would beat the Blues because the Blues' game was all about injuring the other teams' players ... yes, Boston hits, too, but their hits aren't quite as bad as the Blues' hits (especially Sammy Blais) and they play a faster game ... I hate it when people say, "Oh, it's his own fault he got hit in the head." It's not. You know who else i don't like? Niklas Kronwall. Everyone says, "OH, HE GOT KRONWALLED!" as if it's super awesome. Did you see his hit on Anders Lee this past year? How is that not even a penalty????????? People said, "That's a clean hit." Even by the NHL's rules that's not a clean hit. Look it up and watch it. It's not a clean hit EVEN BY THE RULES. Sammy Blais's hits he made this playoff shouldn't be allowed but by the rules they were "clean hits". I definitely wanted San Jose to beat St. Louis. The Blues knew EK was playing hurt so they started hitting him as much as they could, and they did that with the other Sharks' star players. Yes, i will say that San Jose shouldn't have played Karlsson in game 5 of that series, but still, what a stupid strategy by the Blues. Watching them in the playoffs I didn't want them to win the cup.

You need to look at the average age of viewership for mlb. the 60+ demographic is the one watching/falling asleep to the games. the 16-60 demo isnt really watching baseball on tv because of how long the games take. Redsox yankees. 2nd best rivalry in sports behind bruins and habs. took almost 4 and a half hours the other day. and it wasnt a close game. I dont want to watch that product. Sure soccer is being talked about but is it expanding? i guess it depends on the area. It isnt really expanding in massachusetts.