new NHL.com scoresheets

The tekkies at NHL.com spent a lot of time and effort this summer revamping the on-line score sheets. For the most part, they have not gotten high marks.

On the "official score sheet" page, there are WAY too many categories. I'm not sure that I need to know how many defensive zone faceoffs the Hurricanes took in 4-on-4 situations.

What I DO need to know, though, is how many shots my goaltender(s) faced. I'm not sure why that important statistical category isn't on the sheet any more.

For right now, I'm not liking the spreadsheet style of the score sheet. I liked the older, cleaner version.

I know I'm not alone in disliking the new score sheet, but there is one huge improvement that I love. The TOI sheet is way easier to read and is a much more useful took in that regard. No more scrolling down an insane amount and reading a two column document. Huzzah on that one!

Also, the play by play sheet (something that I very seldomly refer to) looks much better than it did last year. It's more informative, cleaner and more concise. Huzzah on that one as well.

Hopefully, the score sheet is a work in progress. I'd hate for that to be the way it is now.

If all you've looked at is the style of the new score sheet, I strongly encourage you to look at those other things.

Probably because it's the preseason, the sheets will be full of errors, like when Brandon Sutter was listed as "#14 Chad LaRose" for last Sunday's game. There were no fewer than four errors on the Caps roster. Reports from other bloggers indicate that this was not an isolated incident.

Anyway, the changes are neither all bad nor all good.