As a hockey fan I'm stuck between two basic, but harsh, realities:
1.) The off-season is always too long.
2.) So is the NHL season. Lets face it, there's always about a month or two after the christmas break where the hockey sucks.
I think if we had shorter seasons, we could see the game evolve even further. Hockey players are not strong, or particularly fast and I think it's because they get chipped away into nothing during the needlessly long season (and worse, 20+ games of prison rules hockey, if you're on a contender), and as a result have to spend 3-4 months just getting back into the shape they were in last training camp. That leaves you with very little time to make progress from year to year, especially if you have extended playoff runs.
That's why I actually prefer it when our prospects get eliminated early from, or don't qualify for the playoffs.
