Yeah I was going to say, hockey was actually behind the other sports in that aspect. Which brings up sort of an interesting parallel in a way of comparing eras and the "best of"s of those eras and doing those crossover debates, the one most likely to come about being Gretzky vs. Jordan. You have Gretzky who is undoubtedly an amazing player already, a Hall of Famer no matter what, who played a lot of his career in the high scoring era of hockey. Then you got Jordan, who played his early career in probably the most, or at least one of the most defensive time periods of the NBA, where you could get away with a whole hell of a lot more playing defense than you could ever dream of in today's game. And he was averaging over (easily over in several seasons) 30 points a game, every year playing against that. Put that in perspective and see how in today's game, where it's easier than ever to score, draw a foul, get to the line etc, and you have today's top players getting sometimes close to the 30 ppg mark, rarely over it.
By the time Jordan had left the Bulls, it wasn't like the Detroit Piston's Bad Boy era anymore, but things like hand checking were still allowed. When Jordan came back with the Wizards, hand checking was on it's way out as well, and it became easier than ever to score from the perimeter, changed the game completely (big reason why we're seeing small point guards like Derrick Rose, Chris Paul, Deron Williams,etc, become monsters) . At ages 38-40 years old, Jordan was still able to average over 20 points a game and play close to his career average in minutes. On two bad knees. There'd be no way he'd be able to do that if the game hadn't changed as such. No way. This example works in reverse for Gretzky and the time he played in. Everything is opposite in his circumstance.
2 line pass, the red line, I think players of today would handle that and be able to adapt to it. Would it make sense to bring it back? No. Would you see a decrease in scoring in today's game if they did? Probably,yes. Would that prove anything? No, because you wouldn't be bringing the mindset of the stand up goalie style back along with those rules, because goalies know it doesn't work. They know there exists better techniques, which were fleshed out and perfected by guys like Patrick Roy. Whereas during that time, it was in it's infancy, nowhere near widely practiced. Again, it really wasn't the goalie equipment that made the impact, it was improved defense and the evolution of the butterfly technique and it's hybrids. It was that turnover of ideas with the younger up and coming goalies acceptance of them and putting them into practice that made the impact.
A new wave of goalies took over. You can point to Roy popularizing the style back in 85', his rookie year, a year in which the average save % in the NHL was .875. Wow right? The days of goalies standing on their feet trying to make saves. Until Roy. From that year on, goalies were filtered out, those who adapted stayed, those who didn't they didn't last too long. And the save percentages started going up. Most importantly, that all happened before the goalie equipment started getting bigger. It had little to do with the scoring drop. By the time the 93'-94 season rolled around with the save percentage for the first time going above .90%, almost all of but a handful (I think 6 or 7 players including Roy) of goalies that played during Roy's rookie season were gone, out of the league. Again, all before the goalie equipment got bigger. And of course all during this time period the "Jordan" example in Dominik Hasek was playing out of his mind (had to get that in there).
Throughout the 80s and early to mid 90s, the NHL's average save % was below .900, hitting low points around .870 something. Compared to today where it's over .910. It took a dip (pretty much just that first season back) after they changed the rules after the lockout, including restrictions to goalie equipment size, to try to promote more scoring, but players and teams adapted and it's right back to where it was before the lockout.One of the very few great goalies, Roy changed the position and changed the game. May have not been the first to use it, but he was the one who pioneered it to what it is today.
