PITTSBURGH — The shootout has never been a legitimate process for deter mining a winner (and half a loser) in an NHL game. Now, five seasons into the unfortunate experiment, the skills competition has become worse than a gimmick.
It has become a bore.
In the ultimate team sport, the one in which fourth-line forwards and third-pair defensemen can be on the ice for decisive plays, and organizational depth is such a critical part of success, the shootout is in danger of turning the NHL into a travesty.
Almost two months into the season, nearly one of every five games (17.8-percent through Friday) is decided by a one-on-one breakaway exhibition in which shooters fail on nearly seven of every 10 attempts (68.4 save percentage), with nearly as many tries missing the net as are stopped by goaltenders.
Is this any way to end a hockey game? Is this any way to decide a winner? Is this any way to decide playoff berths that could be worth millions of dollars in revenue?
No, no, no. Not now, not ever.
There is no way to tweak this blight on the game. More teams are playing for 60-minute ties than at any time since the lockout; 27 percent of all games this season have gone into overtime, with the previous high last year’s 22.9 percent.
Beyond that, more coaches are playing for 65-minute ties than ever before as well, Almost two out of every three overtime contests (65.6 percent) have gone into the shootout, with the previous high the 58.4 percent of 2006-07.
And the percentage of overtime games generally increases as seasons evolve because coaches become more conservative.
Where once the shootout was a novelty, where once it served as an entertainment vehicle, albeit one of questionable authority, it has become an exercise equally as tedious as listening to Joe Buck call a baseball game.
It is time for hockey games to be decided by hockey players and by hockey plays. It is time for the shootout to be replaced by a five-minute, three-on-three overtime period that, when necessary, would follow a scoreless five-minute four-on-four overtime.
And if neither team would score — imagine a 3-on-2 power play — then the 70-minute deadlock would be entered in the standings as just that — a tie game with each team getting a point for its trouble. Now that’s a novelty.
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A playoff berth for the Islanders will be the best advertising to attract support for a new arena on Long Island. To that end, general manager Garth Snow on Friday told Slap Shots via text that he has the authority from CEO Charles Wang to add payroll for a playoff berth.
As such, with the payroll currently hovering close to the league floor, the Islanders have both the space (up to $18 million including the bonus cushion) and the prospects to be major players in the rental market, while the people on Manhattan will be all but capped out barring the gumption to assign pricey ne’er do wells to the AHL.
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It’s not that there’s a double standard when it comes to NHL supplementary discipline, it’s that there is no standard whatsoever. To wit: Georges Laraque sticks out his leg in a reflex reaction, injures Detroit defenseman Niklas Kronwall with a knee-on-knee, and receives a five-game suspension for an unintentional but reckless play. Curtis Glencross on the other hand, intentionally delivers a forearm to Chris Drury‘s chin, thus concussing the Rangers center though he was nowhere near the puck, and receives a three-game suspension for his intentional and flagrant foul.
Knee injury, five games; brain injury, three games.
This, for some reason, reminds me of a summer conversation I had with a general manager in which I suggested that I didn’t see the distinction between Henrik Zetterberg‘s heavily front-loaded long-term contract that received the NHL’s blessing and Marian Hossa‘s, Chris Pronger‘s and Roberto Luongo‘s similar deals that are under league investigation.
“Ah, but there’s a significant difference and I’m surprised you don’t see it,” the GM said. “Zetterberg plays for the Red Wings.”
So then, knee injury to a Red Wing, five games; brain injury to a Ranger, three games.
Got it.
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Just wondering what would happen, by the way, to this search committee Don Fehr is running for the NHLPA executive director position if Bob Goodenow decides to announce his candidacy for the job? An open election, per chance?