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Stifling play making NHL hard to watch

TORONTO — - I almost feel like a traitor writing this.

But the truth is, the last few years, it has been increasingly difficult to sit through an NHL game — and this from a guy who grew up playing and loving the sport.

There’s something about the NHL game that turns me off now. Hockey people talk about how the skill level has never been higher. And they’re right. But that’s part of the problem — all these big, fast-skating players, and the fact that they’re all playing suffocating, tight checking systems, have choked out space and time and with it offence and creativity.