Eliminating the shootout in the NHL?

[GFB]

I'm fine with the shootout for the regular season. It's like suffering through your vegetables at dinner so you can properly enjoy dessert (continuous OT playoff hockey).

[OnWis97]

The NHL is a fringe sport in the United States, so if the shootout is helpful with attracting viewer (because casual fans think it's fun or because we just hate ties that much), then they probably need to keep it.

My preference is to go back to the simple 2 point per game system. One five minute OT. If they want to work in a somewhat gimmicky second 4-on-4 period, I could live with that, but shootouts should not be deciding games. So back to W-L-T. Ties in hockey are fine.

Also, I don't think it's practical to have sudden death until the end in the regular season. Nobody wants to watch "3rd Overtime" on a Tuesday in February. The game would end in front of an empty house. I think ties are a much lesser evil than the impact of regular season games going beyond four periods. Those games are exiting in the playoffs but just not worth it in the regular season.

[The_Admiral]

Ties in hockey are fine.

NO THEY'RE NOT FINE IN HOCKEY OR BASEBALL OR ANY SPORT IN WHICH THE PURPOSE IS TO WIN YOU DON'T LIKE IT GO TO RUSSIA

I understand why we can't have infinite sudden death in the regular season, though. Infinite jest, also not a good idea. Regular Season of the Tucks Medicated Pad.

[The Six]

Theoretically the current system would allow for teams in interconference games to not even try for 3 periods, thus guaranteeing each other a point. Then when overtime starts they can actually try for the second point. The other team's in a different conference, so who cares if they get a point?

Of course it would neeever happen, but it's a fun little potential conspiracy.

[PurpleRush]

76 game regular season, W-L-T standings, normal size goalie equipment, and the Cup hoisted in early May (1st two weeks)

That's how it should be.

[DaRadniz29]

So since your "NFL draft/FA prediction" gathered no responders, therefore you created this one, huh?

Nah. I was just bored and looking for something to do. Thought one or both threads might be interesting.

I've always thought about the shootout as being somewhat of a lazy man's response to "no more ties" but at the same time when occurred occasionally it was kind of a neat experience. Now I feel teams are trying not to lose the game in OT, and go to a shootout for whatever reason, so the shootouts are becoming more and more frequent.

everyone brings up some valid points. For me the best solution(s):

- One 5-on-5, 10-minute running clock OT. Still tied at the end of the OT, the game ends in a tie. 2 points for a win in Regulation or OT. 1 point for tie.

OR

- One 4on4 5-minute OT period. Then Shootout. Five skaters per team. Determining the point system is the problem here.

*This brings up the 4 column standings because I'm not sure a shootout win is the same a regulation or OT win. It also could be counter productive in making Shootouts more common not less common.

[Morgan33]

I liked the shootout when it was first implemented after the lockout. Now I wish it would go away. If the game is not settled after 3 periods and 1 overtime, it is a tie

[GO2HELL]

I'd like to see a straight 10 minute 4 on 4 overtime, no shoot outs. If the game is still tied then call it a night.

[The_Admiral]

- One 5-on-5, 10-minute running clock OT. Still tied at the end of the OT, the game ends in a tie.

If the game is still tied then call it a night.

[CS85]

I'd prefer that each team choose a goon and they fight to determine the game's winner.

[Midway]

I'd prefer that each team choose a goon and they fight to determine the game's winner.

Seeing as the shootout was partly implemented to cater to the casual fan, I wouldn't be suprised if Bettman has actually skimmed this idea once or twice to gain some appeal.

[TBGKon]

My ideal NHL points system would be:

Win - 2 points

Loss - 0 points

Tie - each team gets 1 point

[Saintsfan]

Simplest way to end shoot outs seems to be to allow ties! Can never figure out why Americans are so against the concept of ties!!

[The_Admiral]

A tie sends no one home happy, which is not good when you are in the entertainment business. There's a certain emptiness that comes with having devoted three hours to a sporting event whose outcome is basically that there was no outcome; nothing lost, nothing gained. Take last night's Kings-Blackhawks game, which was a 3-2 shootout loss for the good guys. It was a pretty tight game through 65, obviously, then they ignominiously lost the shootout 1/6 to 0/6. So while I'm disappointed that it wasn't a win, I can't say that the game didn't follow an entertaining, closure-granting trajectory. Had the game been terminated after the perfunctory five-minute overtime, the evening's game would have been framed not as a tightly contested game in which the team was ultimately undone by the same penalty shot ineptitude that could've won them the game in regulation, but rather as a banged-up Hawks team scrapping together some garbage goals against a trap team, screwing around for a while without really accomplishing anything, and then it was decided that enough was enough so they sent everyone home. That's stupid. Imagine if I'd bought a ticket! Sporting events without winners are like plays without climaxes and denouements, and while there's a place for the latter, I don't need my hockey games to remind me of Samuel Beckett.

[TheOldRoman]

Easy solution, guys:

Six points for regulation wins.

Five points for a win in a five minute 5-on-5 overtime.

Four points for a win in a four minute 4-on-4 overtime.

Three points for a win in a three minute 3-on-3 overtime.

Two points for a win in two minute unsanctioned 2-on-2 period with no goalies in which the team must first debilitate both members of the other team and then score, a la Rollerball.

One point for a shootout win. Problem sovled.

Bettman'd

[DG_ThenNowForever]

I hear you. I go to a lot of MLS games and I'm always waiting for Goaldot.

[RedSox44]

Easy solution, guys:

Six points for regulation wins.

Five points for a win in a five minute 5-on-5 overtime.

Four points for a win in a four minute 4-on-4 overtime.

Three points for a win in a three minute 3-on-3 overtime.

Two points for a win in two minute unsanctioned 2-on-2 period with no goalies in which the team must first debilitate both members of the other team and then score, a la Rollerball.

One point for a shootout win. Problem sovled.

Bettman'd

POTD

[Saintsfan]

A tie sends no one home happy, which is not good when you are in the entertainment business. There's a certain emptiness that comes with having devoted three hours to a sporting event whose outcome is basically that there was no outcome; nothing lost, nothing gained. Take last night's Kings-Blackhawks game, which was a 3-2 shootout loss for the good guys. It was a pretty tight game through 65, obviously, then they ignominiously lost the shootout 1/6 to 0/6. So while I'm disappointed that it wasn't a win, I can't say that the game didn't follow an entertaining, closure-granting trajectory. Had the game been terminated after the perfunctory five-minute overtime, the evening's game would have been framed not as a tightly contested game in which the team was ultimately undone by the same penalty shot ineptitude that could've won them the game in regulation, but rather as a banged-up Hawks team scrapping together some garbage goals against a trap team, screwing around for a while without really accomplishing anything, and then it was decided that enough was enough so they sent everyone home. That's stupid. Imagine if I'd bought a ticket! Sporting events without winners are like plays without climaxes and denouements, and while there's a place for the latter, I don't need my hockey games to remind me of Samuel Beckett.

But is a contrived win any more satisfying than a tie? And actually sometimes ties can be some of the more dramatric sporting events, certainly they contain more of a climax or denouement than a team winning 5-0 havinfg gone 3 up in the first period and played front runner from their on in.

Also sport is not an 'entertainment' industry in the same way other live events are. Sometimes you are going to be dissapointed going to a sports event, sometimes your team will lose, or you will sit through a dissapointing match whatever the result.

[-kj]

I hear you. I go to a lot of MLS games and I'm always waiting for Goaldot.

Ouch.

Ties with 2-1-0 are just fine. But if you're going to have a gimmicky way to end the game (shootout), 3-2-1-0 makes the most sense to me. Gives incentive to win the game in regulation, doesn't conjure more points just because a game ends in a carnival game.

[The_Admiral]

But is a contrived win any more satisfying than a tie?

yes

the end