Thursday, November 21, 2002
Beat Report: NHL This year's NHL looks a lot different from the league you knew last year. The hurry-up faceoffs and the crackdown on obstruction and interference have made the game a faster, more wide-open, and higher scoring affair. Many people seem to enjoy the new flow of the game, with the notable and vocal exception of Canada's answer to Archie Bunker, Don Cherry. Of course, Don may just be upset because some of his favorite guys aren't going to make the cut in the new NHL. If you're interested in the day-to-day live of a few of the enforcers that have enough skill to keep playing in today's NHL, check out the online journals of Matt Barnaby or PJ Stock . Stock, along with being a passably entertaining writer, is also of the league's 12 dirtiest players. Good for him. But before you worry that the way that the game is being played now will mean that the NHL of the future will be overrun with non-physical little guys like surprising new star Martin St. Louis (23 points, 19 games) and the rest of Darren Pang's All-Short Team, take heart in the fact that in one game in the minor leagues last week, 23 players were ejected in what could have been billed as
