Of all the rules changes the NHL has made this offseason, most pronounced is the elimination of ties by going to a soccer-like shootout after a 5 minute sudden death OT.
This concept is about as ludicrous as the college football overtime rules. At one point in the past, there was no regular season overtime -- a tie was a tie. Then a five-minute sudden death overtime with normal skating rules was added --- winner got two points, tie was one point each, and loser got zero points. This led to an incentive to preserve the tie by teams, forcing the NHL to come up with the OTL category in the win-loss-tie record, with the overtime loss retaining one point instead of zero, allowing both teams to fight it out for the win without threat of losing the point, except if they allowed an empty net goal. The first year they included the OTL category in the total loss category as well. Ever since, it has been a separate stat.
A few years into that system, the NHL felt it necessary to open things up by reducing the number of skaters in regular season overtime to four on four. This stayed pat for five or six seasons before the instant change.
Playoff overtime is still full 20-minute continuous overtime with intermissions until somebody scores.
Why, you ask, am I so against this new method? Simple. It awards an extra point to a team for a "win" that is not earned at full game speed. Just like College football eliminates special teams, punting, and even the clock, by placing the ball already in field goal range, allowing little buffer, and only having a play clock. That "win" of an extra point could add up in the end of the year and potentially get a team in or keep a team out that would have been in under the old system.
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