[Alberta's Child]

Good points, but I have to disagree with you on big one. The "defensive systems" you refer to actually go back a long ways. It was the Montreal Canadiens who adopted the neutral-zone trap and then worked it to perfection in the 1970s. It's really a European approach to hockey, built around the challenges of defending a larger ice surface with less restrictive offsides rules (the elimination of the red line under current NHL rules that allow longer passes into the neutral zone was adopted by the NHL to match international rules).

The Edmonton Oilers were actually the exception in a lot of ways, not the norm. There's been a swing back and forth in the NHL between the "Montreal style" and the "Edmonton style," and as others have pointed out, the expansion of the last two decades has spread a limited talent pool over a larger league and made it more difficult to get a lot of talent concentrated on one team.

[basalt]

I don’t know....teams are scoring at a pace from the 1940’s. Most sports progress in records being broke...athletes being more skilled etc..but the NHL seems to be going backwards. I noticed it in 1995..when the New Jersey Devils “trapped” and swept a powerful Red Wings team...then it seems all the teams went that way...thats when the Wings finally won the Cup in 1997...Yzerman was told he’d have to play a more “defensive” game. Now they are kinda panicking with all these bizarre rule changes..trapezoids..move the net back,,,then move it front...if the Oilers played with 2 line passes allowed...geez, Wayne would have scored 2000 goals. Theres no more end to end rushes..the neutral zone is constantly clogged up..most goals seem like garbage goals..theers just no flow to the games like there used to be. The Montreal teams were very good defensively,,,but also a very high scoring team..one of the best ever. The stars cant do their thing it seems..and that’s not a good place to be.