Skip to content  Could four extra inches behind the net open up
'Gretzky's office' again?  Sep 12, 2010, 6:00 PM EDT
ingretzkysoffice.jpgIn Oliver Stone’s otherwise middling
football move “Any Give Sunday,” Al Pacino gives a great and
typically over-the-top speech about the sport (and life) being a
“game of inches.” If hockey is the same way, a small change
could pay dividends for the NHL’s most clever players.  The
Boston Globe’s Fluto Shinzawa discussed the NHL’s subtle
decision to decrease the depth of its nets by four inches, a
small-and-barely-noticeable change that could be a boon to the
best finesse players and defensemen. Even if it’s a tiny
difference.       As superhuman as Wayne Gretzky and other
prolific scorers look in those hazy replays from the 1980s, one
thing that also stands out is the absurd amount of space
defenders used to give up. To say that coaches have caught up to
many of the best offensive tricks is an understatement. There’s
a reason why the league keeps searching for little ways