Before the 2005-06 season, the NHL implemented the shootout to eliminate ties, and recently, there’s been a topic that the games shouldn’t be decided in a shootout because it’s not a team effort, and in certain situations, I agree, but I believe that there is one change that would make all fans happy, and that’s a seven-minute three on three OT during the regular season, and if it’s still tied, then the game would head to a shootout which would add on two minutes to the current five minute OT period. The seven-minute OT has already been shown its success as the numbers of shootouts have been down since the change, during the 2018-19 season, the final year before they went to the seven-minute OT, the league had 156 shootouts, in the last two seasons combined the league had 164 shootouts. During the 2021-22 season, the NHL had 102 games that were decided in a shootout. There’s no question that if the NHL adopted a seven-minute OT frame, that number would certainly go down.
Shootouts Need To Go At the International Stage
Shootouts on the international stage shouldn’t exist, and I believe that I’m not alone in that opinion. On such a big stage, it shouldn’t come down to one-on-one to decide a game, the whole idea of international competition is best on best competition, and it should stay that way. During the Kelly Cup and Stanley Cup Playoffs, it’s continuous overtime, and it’s those games that go into three or four overtimes that are always remembered, we all remember 2010 the Sidney Crosby Golden Goal in the Olympics, we need more moments like that instead of having games decided in a shootout. During the PyeongChang Olympics, the Women’s Gold Medal game would be decided in a shootout, and there’s no doubt that everyone wouldn’t mind more US vs Canada hockey, especially in a gold medal game.
