NHL GMs recommend three-on-three OT to cut back on shootouts
By @MichaelCaples –
The NHL’s general managers are gathered in Boca Raton, Fla., right now, and they’re already suggesting a big change to hockey’s highest level.
The GMs recommended Tuesday that the league move to a three-on-three format for regular-season overtime, starting as soon as next season.
According to editorial from NHL.com, if no goal was scored during the three-on-three OT, a shootout would still take place. The GMs want the three-on-three implemented in hopes of decreasing how many games actually need a shootout conclusion.
“The consensus in the room, overwhelmingly, is we’re not getting rid of the shootout. It was, how do you reduce the number of games that go to the shootout, keep the shootout special?” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said.
Two options for the three-on-three OT were discussed. Three-on-three play for five minutes before a shootout was one style., The other mimics what the AHL has implemented, where there is seven minutes of overtime – four-on-four play for three minutes and then three-on-three for the duration of the timeframe.
“I’m good with both,” Red Wings GM Holland said on NHL.com. “I think in both cases what we’re trying to accomplish is, take where 40 percent of our games are decided in overtime and 60 percent in shootouts, ideally we’d like to switch those numbers. We still want shootouts; we think fans like shootouts. But we’re trying to get more games decided playing hockey in overtime. I think whether you do five minutes of 3-on-3 or whether you do the AHL format, the statistics obviously tried in the Swedish league and tried in the American Hockey League show that it works.”
The GMs also recommended the addition of a limited video-replay challenge, which would be issued by a coach, for scoring plays that involve potential goaltender interference. They also proposed the removal of the delay-of-game penalty for players shooting the puck out of play from their own zone.
Rule changes have to be reviewed and approved by the NHL-NHLPA Competition Committee, comprised of league representatives, the NHL Players’ Association and the Board of Governors. That group meets in June.
From the NHL release, 171 of the 224 AHL games needing overtime this season were decided before a shootout took place. Meanwhile, there have been 257 NHL games that have went to overtime, and 110 have been decided in OT.