Wayne Gretzky Laments Decline of Scoring (and Creativity) in N.H.L. (nytimes.com) With 102 points in 80 games, Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks is poised to win the Art Ross Trophy as the N.H.L.’s top point scorer. His superlative season has evoked achievements from an earlier era. He is the first American-born player with a 100-point season in 20 years. His 26-game point streak earlier in the season was the longest since 1992-93. But his league-leading numbers also reflect how far removed hockey is from its offensive heyday. Thirty years ago, Wayne Gretzky set a single-season N.H.L. record with a mind-boggling 215 points in 80 games for the Edmonton Oilers, completing the feat with an assist on a Marty McSorley goal in the season finale against the Vancouver Canucks on April 6, 1986. That season, N.H.L. teams averaged 3.97 goals apiece per game. It was the second highest average in the league’s history since the 1967-68 expansion to 12 teams from six. The peak was 4.01 goals apiece per game in 1981-82. At the 30th anniversary of Gretzky’s seemingly unbreakable record, another statistic stands out: N.H.L. scoring has continued to decline since the 1985-86 season, never topping the 3.97 mark again. The roots of that decline are clear in the mind of Gretzky, the N.H.L.’s career leading scorer with 2,857 points. “When I was 10 years old, they’d throw a puck on the ice and say, ‘Go score,’ ” he said. “Now, at 10 years old, the kids are taught to play in their lanes. Defensemen stay back. Everybody blocks shots. I mean, my goodness, I don’t think I ever blocked a shot, and I killed penalties every single game. I thought goaltenders were paid to block shots, not forwards. It’s changed completely. I think the biggest thing we’ve lost is a little bit of our creativity and imagination in general.” This season, goals per team per game (2.71) is lower than at any time since the so-called dead puck era of 1995 to 2004, when interference tactics and the neutral zone trap were rampant. While Gretzky cited players like Kane, Jonathan Toews, Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin and Steven Stamkos as having imagination and creativity, today’s hockey is far from his run-and-gun prime. “All in all, it’s sort of a grinding game now,” he said. “You’re taught from Day 1 that your role and responsibility is to keep the puck out of your net.” Many factors enabled Gretzky to set his 215-point record, which surpassed his previous high of 212 from 1981-82. At 25, Gretzky was at his physical peak and a playmaking genius surrounded by other superstars. Those Oilers had six future Hockey Hall of Famers: Gretzky, Mark Messier, Jari Kurri, Glenn Anderson, Paul Coffey and Grant Fuhr. In 1985-86, Coffey was third in the league in points with 138 and Kurri fourth with 131. Gretzky said that Glen Sather, who coached the Oilers to four of their five Stanley Cups, was the true architect of this offensive juggernaut. Sather, 72, is currently the president of the Rangers. “He had a vision,” Gretzky said. “He idolized what the Winnipeg Jets did in the W.H.A. with Anders Hedberg, Ulf Nilsson, Lars-Erik Sjoberg and Bobby Hull. He wanted to create an N.H.L. team that was on par with that. So he didn’t try to change what we did as a positive. He gave us the ability to go out there and be ourselves, and yet he pushed us and made us better athletes. No question about it.” The last time teams averaged more than three goals apiece per game was 2005-6 (3.08). After the lockout that wiped out the 2004-5 season, the N.H.L. introduced new rules in a bid to spark more scoring. The center red line was eliminated to allow for two-line passes that could beat the neutral zone trap. A trapezoid was instituted behind the net to limit the area in which goaltenders could play the puck. Teams icing the puck were no longer permitted to substitute fresh players for the ensuing face-off in the defensive zone. The N.H.L. also moved toward a “zero tolerance” officiating standard. Power plays gained a big role. The average number of power plays per team in 2005-6 was 480, compared with 348 in 2003-4. But none of these changes has had a lasting impact. For example, the average number of power plays per team this season is 248. Daniel Sedin, who won the Art Ross Trophy as the N.H.L.’s leading scorer with 104 points for the Vancouver Canucks in 2010-11, acknowledged that the ultratight officiating had gradually diminished. But he said there had also been benefits to limiting the speed of the game and the number of violent collisions, which surged after the 2004-5 lockout. “It’s obviously not being called the way it was 10 years ago,” Sedin said. “But I think also head shots, those bad hits, are gone, too. It’s a fine line between calling the game the way it was 10 years ago and also protecting the players. I don’t think there’s much you can do there. I think it’s more about how teams are coached, how good and how patient every player is now.” Ken Holland, the general manager of the Detroit Red Wings, attributed the reduced scoring to greater competitive balance, more data about opponents and similar coaching strategies leaguewide. “If the scores were 6-5, you could afford mistakes because you can outscore your mistakes,” Holland said. “But when the scores are 2-1 or 3-2, mistakes are critical.” If scoring is to rise again, significant changes to the way hockey is played and coached would be needed. Last season, Jamie Benn of the Dallas Stars was the league’s top scorer with 87 points in 82 games. The last time an Art Ross Trophy winner had fewer points than that in a full season was 1962-63, when Gordie Howe had 86 points in 70 games for the Red Wings. The last Art Ross Trophy winner to get the same number of points as Gretzky had assists in 1985-86 (163) was none other than Gretzky himself, in 1990-91. That was also the last year any player had more than 100 assists. Erik Karlsson of the Ottawa Senators leads the league this season with 64. Goalies, at least, enjoy the current climate. Pekka Rinne of the Nashville Predators epitomizes the modern N.H.L. goalie with his 6-foot-5, 217-pound frame and elite technical skills. The Vezina Trophy winner in 1985-86 was John Vanbiesbrouck, who was listed at 5-foot-8 and 176 pounds. At the general managers’ meetings last month in Boca Raton, Fla., the league set out proposals to streamline goalie equipment, particularly pants and chest protectors. The objective is to increase scoring opportunities and reduce the ability of goalies to rely on padding to compensate for a lack of skill or size, while also keeping them safe. In recent years, the N.H.L. also changed the rules about the length of goalie pads, making them shorter. New equipment prototypes are expected to be ready by June. Making them standard issue next season would require the approval of the N.H.L.’s competition committee and board of governors. Rinne, a 33-year-old Finn who is a three-time Vezina finalist, said he had little appetite for drastic action to ramp up scoring. “It’s good to have these conversations,” Rinne said. “I’m sure something is going to happen. Hopefully nothing radical. I don’t want to change this great game. If it’s goalie equipment, then it is, but hopefully it’s not bigger nets.”