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Burke doesn’t want bigger nets either

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Mike Babcock is campaigning for bigger nets, saying it is impossible to score. Jason Brough agrees, and believes the NHL needs to get back to high-intensity, goal scoring games. But Mike Halford isn't on board yet.

Brian Burke is with Sidney Crosby. The Calgary Flames’ president of hockey operations doesn’t like Mike Babcock’s idea to make the nets bigger.

“That is such an extreme measure to increase scoring that that would have to be the third or fourth of several steps in my opinion,” Burke said today (video). “Goaltending equipment maybe looked at first.”

Crosby, like Burke, also believes that goaltending equipment should be addressed first.

But unlike Crosby, Burke isn’t necessarily in favor of trying to create more goals.

“I don’t think we need a high-scoring number in the game to generate interest,” Burke said. “I think we need scoring chances. … A big save is an exciting play, too.”

For Burke, increasing the size of the nets would be messing with history.

“You’re rewriting the record books if you change the size of the nets,” he said.

Of course, Babcock has argued that not doing anything is what’s actually messing with history, because today’s goalies are so much bigger than the ones in the past.

“By refusing to change you are changing,” Babcock said in 2013. “Purists would say you can’t do it because you’re changing the game but by not changing you are changing the game.”

It all depends how you see it, we suppose.