I hate the invisible, doing-a-good-job defenseman. I love the big hits that defensemen can deliver. I love a defenseman 'coughing up the puck'. I love it when a forward makes a defenseman look bad by pulling off an unbelievable move.
A good defenseman in hockey is like a good referee - you don't notice them until they make a great defensive play.
But that doesn't make for Exciting Hockey. Fans should not require a high "Hockey IQ" to understand whether a defenseman is good or bad. I want to notice defensemen making mistakes.
Generally, a defenseman's job is to take the highlight reel plays away from talented forwards and then start the transition to offense. If everybody on a team does their job defensively, goals do not get scored. Mistakes have to be made in order for goals to be scored in today's NHL.
According to common knowledge and the Formula, we can help defensemen to make mistakes by applying pressure. Taking away the time that is required to make the intelligent play will lead to a breakdown of the defensive team's system and allow the offensive team to exploit a newly exposed weakness. This means that we need to make it easier to put pressure on a defenseman.
Related to that is the fact that defensemen are generally and historically allowed to "battle for the puck". This is the fight for the puck, or the interference a defenseman is allowed to use on a forward in order to win a puck. Do you pay $100+ of your hard earned money to see a defenseman battle a forward for a puck in the slot? No, you pay that $100+ to hopefully see that forward make a mockery of the defenseman and scoring a highlight-reel goal. I want to notice that the defenseman just lost the puck to the forward and it led to a goal. I want a power-play because the defenseman hooked the forward. We need to make sure that an obstruction penalty (holding, hooking, etc) is called everywhere on the ice, not only in pre-determined areas.
I want highlight-reel goals. I want highlight-reel saves. I want highlight-reel hits. I want to notice defensemen.
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