Bob Duff

When the last ice age swept across the planet, it brought about sweeping change to the world.

The dawning of a new ice age in the National Hockey League also will have the same effect on the game’s on-ice product, but it might not be as devastating as everyone predicts.

The new collective bargaining agreement, garnered at the cost of an entire season, brings with it more than a mere salary cap. The new-look NHL will feature much more than a sounder economic structure.

The game as we know it is about to be altered dramatically, and fans shouldn’t expect the NHL to look like it did before the lockout.

It may very well look much better.

"They’re going to make some changes," ‘Hockey Night In Canada’ broadcaster and former NHL coach Harry Neale said.

Changes to the on-ice product, where the league has proposed 13 modifications to the way the game is played. Seismic-level alterations to the rosters of every club are guaranteed in the struggle to get down below the newly introduced salary cap.

"We’re entering an entirely new era in NHL history," Detroit Red Wings general manager Ken Holland said.

And it could actually be a good thing.

Before the NHL vanished, the game had grown stale. "The good games now are as good as they ever were, there just aren’t as many," Neale said.

Defense had usurped offense as the element utilized to provide the winning edge. "When I played, the purpose of the game was to get the puck and score," said Philadelphia Flyers GM Bob Clarke, who captained the same club to back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1973-74 and 1974-75. "Somewhere along the line in the last 10 years, we’ve gotten away from that.

"Our game has come to the point where the purpose of the game is to stop your opponent. When we talk about players now, we say, ‘How did this guy play?’ ‘He didn’t hurt us.’ ‘Yeah, but did he help us?’"

In an attempt to alter this style — a new slogan 'A Whole New Game' is expected to be unveiled — the league has put forward to its GMs a laundry list of proposed changes to the game, including zero tolerance on obstruction away from the puck, the tag-up offside rule, the hurry-up faceoff, no-touch icing, no line changes following an icing, smaller goaltender equipment, larger nets, no icing the puck on penalty kills, no substitution on offsetting penalties, 20 playoff teams, no points for an overtime loss and a variety of OT sessions, including four-on-four, three-on-three and the shootout.

"I think it’s the perfect time to bring in some new stuff," former Ottawa Senators goaltending coach and NHL goalie Phil Myre said.

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"They’ve been off for a year, it’s going to be a new era, so bring in the new rules and go with it."

The variations were experimented with during a three-day research and development camp held June 6-8 in Toronto.

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