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NHL

NHL Close to Drastic Playoff OT Change?

Posted May 04, 2009 4:15PM By Adam Gretz (RSS feed)

Filed Under: NHL Fans

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As a hockey fan, there are few things I enjoy more in sports than overtime in the playoffs. Actually, the only thing better than overtime hockey, for my money, is overtime hockey in a Game 7.

On Sunday, we were treated to a triple overtime thriller between the Anaheim Ducks and Detroit Red Wings, which ended when Todd Marchant beat Chris Osgood with a perfectly placed shot under the crossbar, tying the Western Conference semifinal at one game apiece. If some folks in the NHL -- or the media -- had their way, it might have ended far earlier, robbing us of the brilliant goaltending performances of Osgood and Jonas Hiller, and the drama of a game ending in triple overtime.

According to Stu Hackel of the New York Times hockey blog, Slap Shot, the NHL nearly changed its format for overtime in the playoffs, making it so the game would switch to four-on-four hockey after the first overtime period. The theory behind this, obviously, is to shorten the games and prevent marathons like Sunday (more open ice = more scoring opportunities = shorter games).

From Hackel:
That sparked McKenzie to relate something we'd never heard before, that the N.H.L.'s Competition Committee was apparently one vote away "in the last year or so" from recommending a change in Stanley Cup play. This change would have had the teams go to four-on-four hockey after the first overtime period. In fact, the proposal, which McKenzie said was strongly supported by Brendan Shanahan, got a majority of the votes in the committee but needed more than a majority to pass and fell one vote short of the number needed to come out of the committee.
Wow. The question now needs to be asked (and Hackel asks it as well): if we're apparently this close to four-on-four hockey in the playoffs, is the shootout far behind? Hopefully, for the sake of playoff hockey, the answer is a clear and definitive no.

In the regular season, when a game is tied after regulation, the two teams play a five-minute, four-on-four overtime period. If the two teams remain tied after the overtime period, the game is decided by a shootout, while the losing team still picks up a point in the standings. It was a rather large change that many hockey fans have yet to accept or embrace, and likely never will.

Sportsnet's Mike Brophy, on the other hand, not only likes the idea of four-on-four hockey, but is campaigning for the NHL to go through with the switch after the first overtime period, calling games such as Sunday's Ducks-Wings tilt "an excruciating bore." Really? I thought it was the best game of the postseason to this point.

He continues:
Sunday's four hour and 22 minute marathon between the Detroit Red Wings and Anaheim Ducks was not a classic. It was not a game for the ages. Five years from now we'll all forget it was ever played. Well, maybe not Todd Marchant of the Ducks because he put us out of our misery by finally scoring the game-winning goal at 1:15 of the sixth period
He then closes that segment of his column by writing, "I love for the day when I can sit down to watch an NHL playoff game knowing I don't have to have a week's worth of food and supplies in the house just in case it goes into overtime."

Fair enough, Mike, even if it is a ridiculous overreaction, but if you're that bored with overtime hockey, and live in fear of a game going on long into the night, it might be wise to find something better to do with your time and not watch hockey at all.

Beyond that, such a drastic change to the game -- and it is a drastic change-- would be a knee-jerk reaction to an event that happens once or twice (if that) in a given playoff year.

Some of the better multiple overtime games include:

-- Petr Nedved's fourth overtime goal against the Washington Capitals in 1996, a game that also included an overtime penalty shot.

-- Keith Primeau ending the longest game of the post-expansion era in the fifth overtime.

-- Petr Sykora ending two games in the early morning hours: one for Anaheim, one for Pittsburgh.

-- Henrik Sedin ending game 1 of the 2007 Western Conference quarterfinal late in the fourth overtime.

-- Pat LaFontaine ending the series against Washington in 1987 in the fourth overtime.

Had these games been played four-on-four after the first overtime, it's possible that most, if not all, would have ended well before they the third or fourth overtime. I don't consider that a good thing. These are the types of rare performances that make playoff hockey so amazing and unpredictable. Please, NHL: don't change a thing.

Tags: Chris+Osgood, ChrisOsgood, Henrik+Sedin, HenrikSedin, Jonas+Hiller, JonasHiller, Keith+Primeau, KeithPrimeau, Pat+LaFontaine, PatLafontaine, Petr+Nedved, Petr+Sykora, PetrNedved, PetrSykora, Todd+Marchant, ToddMarchant

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