The 2019-2020 NHL season had it all: a tight, superstar-led scoring race, favourites and underdogs and a flurry of Canadian teams in the playoff hunt.
It also offered Atlantic Canadians the chance to again watch their favourite sons Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon and Brad Marchand play for the Stanley Cup.
It was to be a season for the books.
COVID-19 has brought all that momentum — the highlights, the goals, the roar of the jersey-clad crowds — to a screeching halt. We might not see hockey again until the fall, NHL or otherwise.
But Montreal Canadiens legend and author Ken Dryden is focused on the future of hockey and, with another season’s experience, is pleased by the direction of the game.
“It’s terrific. It’s really well played,” he said during a phone interview with the Saltwire Network.
“It is a game that is being developed and played with that much better skill and it's moving on into junior and into the NHL and it’s being played all over the world.”
Dryden, who has written several books, the most recent being Scotty, said changing the way hockey is played is something that stands out from the hum of the everyday news cycle.
It’s also something that he’s been researching and writing about for years.
The stoppage, he explained, is a chance for both hockey and the world to take stock of what’s important.
“For most of us, the focus, the priority is and needs to be how do we do the right thing for today,” said Dryden, adding that what seemed important or newsworthy a month ago has shifted given the global pandemic.
And the need to encourage a safer, more skill-centric brand of hockey isn’t something that’s going away.
“Still, the huge central question has to do with the way in which we play and the safety of players,” said Dryden.
He pointed to developing skill levels of minor and junior hockey players, who can all skate, pass and read the ice, as examples of how the sport is evolving.
“It’s amazing how well 10 and 12-year-olds play and how they play,” said Dryden.
The real trick, he explained, isn’t just that kids can skate; it’s about encouraging players to move the puck.
By embracing a game of movement, players will become more skilled and hockey will become faster because they’re more skilled.
“If you’re only moving at the speed of the puck carrier, the game doesn’t move very fast,” said Dryden. “If it’s moving at the speed of the passed puck, then it flies.”
But the emphasis on skill doesn’t mean hockey will become a softer game.
In fact, argued Dryden, the game will still be a physical one but players won’t needlessly put each other in danger. The best players in the NHL are already playing that way.
“Who’s been the best NHL player the last 10 years? It’s your guy, Sidney Crosby. He plays a really physical brand of hockey. He’s always in the corners, always in front of the net, always on the puck, always bumping, always shoving,” he said.
Like other professional sports leagues, the NHL has come under scrutiny for how it handles concussions and its inaction when it comes to player safety.
Dryden explored this and much more through his book Game Change, which was published in 2017, by examining the life and death of NHL player Steve Montador, who was diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) after his death.
Simply put, the time to implement change is now.
“The (player) protection is not going to come from the equipment. It’s going to come from the way in which we play. If we’re looking to protect players, you don’t focus in terms of head injuries, you don’t focus on equipment,” he said when asked where we start in protecting players.
Given the progression in skill over the last few NHL seasons, the shift has already started and is taking place from the professional level down.
“That’s the way the game is going and evolving,” said Dryden. “Acknowledge it, see it for what it is.”
And, with any luck, the game will continue to change for the better once the puck drops again.
@joshrjhealey
