Figured this could be an interesting discussion topic... What are your thoughts on the shootout? How would you adjust?


http://msn.foxsports.com/nhl/story/Deci ... dea-123010

Updated Dec 30, 2010 8:13 PM ET
After coming up short in their first three attempts this season, the Bruins finally won a shootout when they earned the extra point in Florida on Monday.

It helped keep alive a modest three-game winning streak, which the club will take into Thursday's game in Atlanta, but it didn't change my opinion on this blight on the game.

The shootout has been around for six seasons now, when it was instituted after the owners' lockout ended in 2005. It doesn't appear to be going away anytime soon.

It remains popular with a strong segment of the sport's fan base, even if few actually within the game can stomach seeing a game decided in that fashion.

The concept came about because of the notion that fans would no longer accept games without a definitive winner or loser. The fact that the league seemed to survive just fine for 87 years with ties no longer mattered, as fans needed to celebrate a victory or mourn a defeat — regardless of how bogus the mechanism for that resolution.

Ties have long been compared to kissing your sister, and I'll avoid the obvious joke about wondering how the league could possibly not want to embrace that concept after trying to woo Southern fans for so long. But even accepting the analogy, I'd argue to extend it by noting that shootouts are like kissing a light socket. It might be a thrill for some, but it's certainly not something I'd fancy.

So now, after 65 minutes of a hard-fought team game, NHL games are decided by an individual matchup in a cheesy skills competition. Only the NHL could take arguably the most exciting moment in sports — the penalty shot — and turn it into an abomination.

The shootout eliminates most of what makes the game great. There is no teamwork, no passing, no checking or physical play of any kind. The stay-at-home defensemen and checking-line forwards are not needed, and the tough guys can forget about ever playing a role in this spectacle, which may actually make them the lucky ones.

The shootout isn't even conducted under normal playing conditions. After overtime, the path between the faceoff circles down the length of the ice is given a "dry scrape" by the Zamboni, much to the dismay of goalies like Tim Thomas. The NHL's leader in goals-against average, save percentage and shutouts this season was no match for the dreaded dry scrape earlier this year, when he stopped old friend Phil Kessel's deciding goal in a shootout in Toronto, but couldn't stop himself from sliding back into the net with the puck.

"They scrape the ice [for the shootout], and it's more slippery than at any other time, even normal fresh ice," Thomas said after that Dec. 4 game. "It's just frustrating when you make the save, but you can't stop your backward slide because of dry scraped ice, which you never face at any other time in hockey."

The shootout creates plenty of situations you never see at any other time in hockey. Take, for instance, the fact that after 60 minutes, a game worth two points magically now has three at stake. Yes, for all the league's desire to eliminate ties and have a winner and loser in each game, there is no true loser, with the team that is beaten in overtime or a shootout still getting a point. Consider that the NHL's answer to a Little League participation trophy, even if most of the players on the team don't actually get to participate in the shootout.

Thanks to those three-point games, the league's records are forever skewed. Last year, just seven of the 30 teams finished with losing records, and just eight currently sit under .500 this year. Does anyone find something wrong with a league that has 77 percent of its teams finish the season with winning records?

Those bonus points for shootout wins have already determined several playoff races, most notably last year when Philadelphia beat the Rangers in a shootout in their regular-season finale to secure a postseason berth. Think the Bruins' playoff run might have ended a little differently if the Flyers hadn't snuck in thanks to a last-minute skills competition?

And the NHL can't even deliver on the shootout's one redeeming value — its potential for entertainment. While it's an atrocious way to decide a game, a series of breakaways can be fun to watch. That is if creativity were actually encouraged. Instead, when someone like Edmonton rookie Linus Omark tries a spin-o-rama like he did against the Lightning earlier this month, he gets chastised for not "respecting the game."

Where was that respect for the game when this awful gimmick was installed?

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(this would be impossible in soccerfootball.)

I am against shootouts.

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HOCKEY IS BACK!

Sounds to me he is still bitter his team decided to give up a 3-0 lead in games and in the 7th game a 3 goals lead also to be eliminated from the playoffs.

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shootouts are bullshit tho, just saying

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PSA: I am an overly sarcastic person. If you take me at my word, then i will most likely anger and offend you.

If they didn't play 82 games I'd be for continuous OT in the regular season, but seeing how many games go to a shootout, you'd see many more injuries due to fatigue in the regular season.

Blah, blah, blah, professionals. Your body is not made to do that much work so it's impractical for that.

I honestly don't want to see ties ever come back. I do like the idea of making a regulation win 3 points, and OT/SO win 2 points, and OT/SO losers 1 point. Or go Reg Win 3 points, OT win 2 points, and SO win 1 point. No points for a loser.

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i see nothing wrong with ties


if after 60(65) minutes of hockey no tea is better than the other, then it cheapens the game to say one team deserves the extra point because they are better in one aspect of the game, breakaways

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PSA: I am an overly sarcastic person. If you take me at my word, then i will most likely anger and offend you.

Ties just make it boring to me. If I pay money to see a team win and none win, then I will be pissed.

The shootout is fine to me. If you could find a better way to decide a game, then so be it, but I don't see any way that could work better because I for one do not want ties back in the game.

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thats the thing tho


you pay money to see a hockey game played between two teams, and it is up to the team that you happen to be cheering for win

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PSA: I am an overly sarcastic person. If you take me at my word, then i will most likely anger and offend you.

The only problem with the shootout is the creation of the 3 point games. Otherwise it's fine.

I don't have much issue with the shootout either.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

I agree also, remove the loser point, or make a SO win only 1 point and OT and Regulation win 2 points.And when you lose no points are awarded.

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HAY HAY HAY

I love shootouts. How else can Datsyuk absolutely mentally destroy goalies? Need I remind everyone...

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"Counting all the assholes in the room, I'm definitely not alone!" ~ Michael Poulsen, Volbeat, Still Standing.

Same move, but I love that move.

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Get rid of it because it is becoming a mockery of the game. Just go to continuous 5 or 10 minute 4 on 4 OT's

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just call me Brad

Twitter @BUrbanowicz13

I love shootouts...I think they're exciting and I used to HATE ties (with the burning passion of thousand suns). I like one team to win and one to lose.

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"Oh honey, I would but...I don't want to" ~ Karen Walker

Shoot outs are great, it allows the game to end with a winner and loser, and it puts the puck on the stick of the best players, allows them to show their skills off, and it makes goalies display their talents as well. It's a great showcase for the fans, and I think it's the most exciting part of the game!

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"She's like plan C after an 18 pack"

Squanto 7/27/2010

2 points for a win, OTW, or SOW
0 points for a loss, OTL, or SOL

Fixes things. Also, I fucking love shootout wizardry. How else would we have been graced by the dreaded sick-nasty Around The World, or Datsyuk's alley-oop, or The Kotalik.

And ties are a cancer. An absolute cancer.

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mechaphil

I hate ties, Id prefer no losing points, if you lose then you should get 0 points imo.

I actually like the shootout, but I was thinking of a possible replacement for it.

How about having a shootout of Powerplays? Let me explain, take the same format as the shootout, one round of three tries. Each try now consists of a powerplay. we could say the first one is 5 on 4, and the second two are 5 on 3? Something along those lines. That way people cant complain that it is something 'outside, or foreign' to the game itself which is deciding it. It is the entire team (at least the PP and PKers) who are deciding the game. And it would be pretty freaking exciting.

That would be sweet, but there'd be a fight every PP... If it ended after exactly 2 minutes there'd always be the guy trying to squeeze out that last shot who would get pounded for shooting late.

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"Call a cop he robbed Delmore blind!!!"
Rick Jeanerette after Marty Biron's diving save back in 2000.

"I'm going to go to the spa and have a hot tub and massage and relax," Miller said. "That's it, and it's back to work tomorrow." Ryan Miller after clinching the North East division.