Kevin Dupont

Brett Hull, never shy about shooting pucks, or shooting off his mouth, would like some of the NHL's working help to get vocal. According to the Golden Brett, a little bit of lip would do a lot of good for biz.

Prompted by recent comments by Minnesota defenseman Nick Schultz, who said the league needed players to speak their minds and cause some controversy, Hull once more put the puck top shelf. Today's hockey players, Hull told the St. Paul Pioneer Press, might be concerned with saying ''the right thing all the time.''

''I think that hurts us sometimes,'' added Hull. ''Hockey players always try to say the right thing. You don't get guys showboating, things like that. If we had more guys like that, like (Jeremy) Roenick, guys with more personality — that's what people like. That's what makes headlines, not necessarily in a good way all the time, but that's what attracts interest.''

Amen to that. Today's NHL is far too predictable, and often too boring. Similar to before the lockout, defense too often rules the day, and kills the game's entertainment factor.

The NHL, added Hull, ''has become robotic; that's the way the game's gone.''

Wouldn't it be wonderful if the game's best and highest-paid performers gathered in Atlanta for the Jan. 26-27 All-Star break, stepped out of form and showed some Hull-like irreverence for sticking with the status quo?

It's a game that needs a kick in the pants, and the best ones to deliver it are those who command the spotlight with their talent. The proof is Hull himself.

In the late-’90s, the Golden Brett labeled the NHL ''too boring'' and ''too depressing,” and added that the league ''had the wrong people in charge.''

Early on in the ''dead puck'' era, when the Devils turned the neutral zone trap into an art form, and ultimately three Stanley Cups, Hull decried the trend toward suffocating defensive hockey.

''They had better wake up,'' he said. ''It's destroying the game. People better start watching and figure it out. It's embarrassing. How can they let the game be like that? It's a hooking and holding fest.''

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Now the Dallas Stars' co-general manager, the 43-year-old Hull isn't in the business of scoring goals anymore and his stint as an NBC commentator was both short-lived and underwhelming. However, he still has a way of cutting right to the bone with his comments. And history shows that man has a way of being right.

If the best and brightest need a little help finding the fix, here is one man's 10 best suggestions to spice things up:

1. Shrink the neutral zone. Yes, that's right, make the sheet smaller, not bigger. Prevailing wisdom today is that the game would be better on the Olympic-sized sheet, an increase in NHL rink widths from 85 to 100 feet. Just room for these guys to hide. Leave the width alone, tighten up the neutral zone 10-12 feet (to 38 or 40 feet total) and behold the bodyslams.

2. Drop the instigator penalty. The good news here is that the players themselves want to get rid of the game misconduct that was front-loaded on to fights beginning in 1992-'93. Fighting is good. It polices the games, and fans love it.

3. Give goalies their choice, either to: 1) wear the same equipment that was still in vogue in the late-'80s, horsehair pads and all, or 2) keep the new-age jumbo equipment, but give up their sticks. Even without their big paddles, goalies will still stop most shots, but there will be a lot more ''hot'' rebounds and frantic action all around the net.

4. European quotas. OK, guilty, report me to the Xenophobia Hotline. All I know is, other than prime European talent, North American crowds more easily identify with homeboys rather than the vast faceless talents from Russia, Finland, Sweden, et al. On a nightly roster of 18 skaters and two goalies, mandate that a total of 17 must be North American-born. Overall talent level will drop, but that only will open up the game. Bobby Orr and Bobby Hull skated around a lot of tomato cans, and it was great entertainment.

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5. Cut the schedule back to 70 games, where it stood in the late stages of the Original Six NHL. Over a six-month schedule, that's only two fewer regular-season games per month. Allow the working help some recovery time. Fewer injuries. Less fan exhaustion, too.

6. Open up room in the offensive zone. Wild coach Jacques Lemaire suggests allowing clubs, once successfully carrying the puck into the offensive end, to ''stretch'' the zone by permitting play to remain onsides if the puck crosses back over the blue line, and even goes as far back as the mid-ice red line. Not bad. Otherwise, the suggestion here is that clubs not be allowed to have all five skaters in their defensive zone, other than during face-offs. Less is more.

7. Leave rules that govern icing intact throughout the game. This will dramatically change how clubs kill penalties, and certainly will increase power-play goals. Gone will be the day when clubs killing penalties can ''dump'' pucks out of the defensive zone, firing them 100-150 feet down the ice. At least force them to play pucks over the defensive blue line before swatting them down ice.

8. An overtime loss is, well, a loss! The winning team leaves with two points, and the losing team walks out of the rink with a big, fat zero. End of story, and game.

9. Tighten up game rosters. Fine, the Players' Association won't give up roster spots, which means clubs will continue to dress 18 skaters and two netminders for every game. But, similar to soccer, before the opening face-off, two of the skaters should be designated ''substitutes.” They only enter the game when a coach decides to ''pull'' one of his 16 starters. A pulled player is not allowed back into the game. Better players will log more ice time.

10. One referee only. Admit it, it was more fun when these guys got away with murder ''behind the play''.