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NHL officials ponder drop in scoring

National Hockey League officials will look at reasons behind a drop in scoring this season, just one year after new rules to boost scoring provided a jump in goals per game.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, speaking before the start of the Stanley Cup Finals here Monday, said there is no mandate to make any changes but officials want to study the trend and the reasons behind the drop in goals.

"Scoring during the regular season was off about three-tenths of a goal a game and the scoring in the playoffs is off about a goal a game," he said.

"We're going to look at it with the competition committee. We're going to look at it with the [general] managers and ultimately with the Board [of Governors]," Bettman said.

"The first judgment that will have to be made is, is that a significant issue and is that something we need to address?" he said.

"Even-strength goals are actually up. There are less penalties, not because we're relaxing the standard, but because everybody's adjusting to it. So the number of power-play goals is where the falloff was in scoring," Bettman said.

Bettman also said that the league might look more favorably upon a bid to move a team to Canada by Jim Balsillie, who has signed a letter of intent to buy the Nashville Predators after a bid to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins was rejected.

Bettman stressed that no move is in the planning stages and Balsillie has told him that there are no plans to shift the team to Canada, as he had hinted might happen with the Penguins.

But Bettman also said he is intrigued by the idea of having another team in hockey-mad Canada.

"That's something that, while we haven't studied it, seems to be more likely than it was three, four, five years ago," Bettman said.

"If the right circumstances presented themselves and there was an interest in a real meaningful, material way, it's something we would have to obviously look at seriously. But beyond that, we haven't gone to the next step," he said.

Bettman did note that the Predators, who have struggled to draw fans despite a strong season on the ice, have a 14-year lease but said that an escape clause could see the team free to leave much sooner.

Bettman also addressed the controversy around former Phoenix Coyotes associate coach Rick Tocchet, who on Friday pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to promote gambling and promoting gambling.

"Rick Tocchet pled guilty to a Grade 3 felony. He has yet to be sentenced," Bettman said. "I'm not really in a position to say what's going to happen until there's a complete disposition of his case.
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