Hockey Shootouts

Just finished watching the Avs play the Blackhawks, a game which ended with Chicago winning in a shootout, and it got me thinking. What is really so great about the shootout anyways?

I think that I may be in the minority with this one, but still, what is the need for a shootout in the NHL? How long did we manage to survive with teams tying? There have been a lot of OT rule changes over the last 10 years, and, as time has gone by, I've become less and less of a fan of this one. I liked the change of having OT played 4 on 4. I didn't initially like giving each team 1 point at the end of regulation, but have grown to at least be okay with it as it has created some pretty exciting and wide open overtime sessions. But I just continue to like the shootouts less and less. It can skew the standings in favor of a team who did well in the shootouts, but isn't really that great of a team. Saw this with the Stars a few years ago when they were the #2 team in the west and got knocked out in the first round of the playoffs. That year that had won more shootouts than any other team, and it got them a great seed, but the were bounced in 5 games, I think (back in 2006).

The appeal, at first, was obvious. It had just been another Olympic year with one of the semi-final or final rounds going to shootouts and everybody was so excited by them. So it only made sense to do it in the NHL. Here's the difference though. Olympic tournament, once every 4 years, NHL 82 games a season, every year. I think the awe factor of the shootout, at least to me anyways, has worn off. I truly believe that the game is better off without the shootouts.

My biggest reason for wanting the shootouts to go away completely is this. You just know that the worst commissioner in any league's history, Gary Bettman, is going to want to make that the way that the playoffs are decided instead of the continuous, until somebody scores, overtime. This would be tragic. Think about it. Do you want the Stanley Cup to be decided based on a best of 3 shootout? It would diminish the team factor of the game and puts the fate of a championship in the hands of 4 people, if you include the goalie, on each team instead of on the performance of the team as a whole. Hockey is the ultimate team sport, and to do that to it would be tragic.

The shootout was really just a ploy by Bettman to try and get more people to watch the game, which hasn't really worked considering he still hasn't managed to get the NHL back onto a cable station that exists in each American household. And until THAT happens, I'm afraid that it won't really matter too much what Bettman does.

What do you think?