With a minute remaining in last night’s Philadelphia Flyers vs. Pittsburgh Penguins game at the Wachovia Center, there was a buzz beginning to circulate through the sellout crowd. In the young hockey season, barely 20% in, we haven’t seen too much of the one rule change that may have improved the game — the shootout.

The Flyers have yet to have one, considering the collection of additional rule changes have made the game so wide open that scoring is at an all-time high, which means more games with larger numbers on the scoreboard, and larger margins of victory. It all equals less overtimes, and that is an improvement, but I was looking forward to Simon Gagne, Peter Forsberg and the like going up against ex-Flyers Mark Recchi and perhaps John LeClair, not to mention rookie sensation Sidney Crosby.

I had seats 4 rows from the ice, the closest I’ve ever been since you have to own an oil rig or date Paris Hilton to be able to afford good seats for Flyers games. I’d seen some good thumping, some amazing passing (mostly by Forsberg), some solid drinking (mostly by me), and I was ready for a shootout. But this is one of those weeks in the City of Brotherly Anguish when everything goes as you’d expect it to — horribly. So when the rookie took a pass from Ryan Malone ahead of the pack at the blue line with cherries falling down around him, we were once again left holding the proverbial bag. Disappointed. Unsatisfied. Top shelf. Hockey game.

The point is really about the game though. This is really about the fact that the NHL has put in rules that increase power plays, which increases scoring. If you’re for change, that’s all well and good. No lead is safe anymore. It used to be if you were up 3 in the third you could see what else was on, but now that lead is as safe as a 12-year old boy at Michael Jackson’s house. But for me, give me a goalie on his head, 1-1, 30 shots turned away. Six fights. 25 hits per side. That’s hockey. That’s old school. I mean, could you imagine Gretsky in this game? Any record Crosby gets near should have an asterisk near it.

Still though, it was nice to be back in a rink. I almost forgot about that palpable din found at hockey games, where there is quiet tension followed by brief moments of agony or ecstacy that makes a hockey crowd quite different than any other sport. Do you think OLN captures that well? Cough….cough….