3 ON 3 PLAYOFF FORMAT COULD REDUCE DREADED SHOOTOUTS
NHL general managers think change will add more offence to the game
Remember when the shootout was going to finally cure hockey of its unsatisfying tie games and bring excitement back to the sport?
Me either, but that’s what the National Hockey League was selling, coming out of the lockout of 2004- 05, and fans bought it.
Simultaneously, thanks to a spate of accompanying rule changes, semi- fire- wagon hockey broke out in various places, on occasion, and artistry looked as though it might be making a comeback after years of skill being repressed, obstructed and otherwise stifled by what Mario Lemieux and Brett Hull and others used to call “the rodeo.”
Ten years later, we know the renaissance was fairly brief, but the shootout lived on, and each year, as defensive systems increasingly choked life out of the game, a few teams would live and a few would die by their extraordinary ability or inability to grind out ties and win those abominable skill contests.
To a fair number of NHL general managers, though, the shootout was always like a stone in their collective shoe. Whatever the fans might think, the oldschool hockey guys didn’t like the outsized influence it had on the standings.
And finally — this week, nearing the end of the American Hockey League’s guinea- pig season using a hybrid of 4- on- 4 followed by 3- on- 3 overtime with the aim of settling games before the shootout with a semblance of real hockey — the GMs’ determination reached critical mass at their meetings in Boca Raton, Fla.
They recommended a change to 3- on- 3 play in overtime, which needs to be approved by the players and the competition committee and then adopted by the governors to be put into place for next season.
Some qualms have been expressed, as if five minutes of 3- on- 3 would add stress to the lives of the half- dozen best players on each team, who would essentially play the entire extra period. It sounds more like a bargaining ploy than a real concern.
“No, it’s one or two extra shifts, maybe,” said Vancouver Canucks defenceman Kevin Bieksa, who might not be in the top- three but would certainly be one of those first five or six players on the ice. “It’ll be a lot easier to score a goal 3- on- 3, I think. So it’ll help the numbers for the guys at the top of the league in points.”
Make no mistake, this is all part of a package to get more offence in the game, by whatever means.
Having the NHL’s leading scorers languishing around a point per game isn’t too thrilling for anyone, and though a multitude of ideas have been proposed from the peanut gallery for improving the lives of shooters — a meaningful reduction in the size of goalie pads and gloves is a hardy annual joke; removing the “paddle” from the goal stick would help but also will never happen; enlarging the net is the most desperate, least palatable option — the best short- term solution seemed to be legislating more space and fewer bodies to get in the way of passes and shots.
The prospects are tantalizing. Think of the Sedin twins with time and space. Or Ovechkin and Backstrom, or Crosby and Malkin or Toews and Kane or Getzlaf and Perry or ... well, every team has a pair of forwards who could light it up once the yoke is removed. Those with a great puck- moving defenceman — a Karlsson, Doughty, Keith, Subban — would be ahead of the game, and a good puck- handling goaltender would be extra valuable.
“I think it’ll be a 2- on- 1 fest. It’ll be interesting to see how the strategy develops,” Bieksa said.
“I’ve been in a couple of situations ( where it’s) 3- on- 3 before, and it’s a lot of fun out there. Mistakes are made and games are decided quickly.
“All you have to do is break up a play at one end and you’ve got an odd- man rush at the other. We were in Anaheim, and the twins and I were out against Niedermayer, Pronger and Marchant or someone like that. The faceoff in their end was kind of a scramble, and I’m not going to say who Niedermayer beat up- ice, but ... it was one of the twins,” he said with a grin. “And that’s all it took. He had a step on him and it was a goal, right there.”
A funny thing, though, as ESPN. com points out: the players the Canucks acquired last off- season — goalie Ryan Miller, forwards Radim Vrbata and Nick Bonino — were attractive in part because of their success in shootouts.
Sure enough, the Canucks have improved dramatically at them. Miller, though he’s sidelined by a knee injury at the moment, hasn’t allowed a shootout goal all season.
So they should enjoy it while it lasts.
By next season, unless the players association throws up an unexpected roadblock, a great many tied hockey games will be decided by ... well, hockey. Or something very much like it. What a concept.