- CP on TSN: Topics at the GM meetings, which run from today through Wednesday, will cover altering or extending overtime and expanding video review. They are looking to reduce the number of games that go to a shootout. Since the start of the shootout in 2004-05, 13.3 percent of all regular season games have gone to a shootout. 12.57 percent of all games this season have gone to a shootout.
“I would prefer for our game to be decided by playing hockey instead of the skill part of the game, which is the shootout,” Jim Nill of the Dallas Stars said. “It’s really tough. You can play a great game, play a great overtime and then you go to a shootout and just because you lose a shootout it feels like you’ve lost the game — and you have, and it hurts because you played such a good game. I would rather lose a game by playing the game.”
GMs Jim Rutherford and Ken Holland would like to see five minutes of four-on-four, and then five minutes of three-on-three. GM Dough Armstrong would like to see four-on-four extended longer.
The ‘long change’ will also be discussed.
“I would be a hundred per cent in support,” Maloney said. “If you look at the second period and the (long) line changes how often mistakes are made, and bad line changes lead to rushes. All of a sudden you do that in overtime with four people and the tiredness of the game, I think that’s a natural evolution, myself. I think that’s the first step.”
Video review is another hot topic.
“You can count on one hand how many times they miss a puck hitting the net, but that specific case and it ended up as a goal, yeah, it probably should’ve been (reviewed) — maybe if the video department had that authority, it would’ve been used,” Maloney said. “And I think we all agree that in that case that was just wrong, and we need to correct that.”
“Our game is part of momentum and keeping the game going,” Rutherford said. “But at the same time, the league has always said that they want to get goals right. We saw an example (in Detroit) where it had nothing to do with the guidelines of how the league proceeds, but we didn’t get one right.
“So that’s something that we’ll discuss, I’m sure. But there’s a fine line there: How many times can you review things in a game without slowing it down to change the time of a game another 15 minutes.”
A coaches challenge system may not be instituted though.
“It would be nice to just have a monitor in the penalty box for the official to gather as much information to make the right call because they’re closest to the action like they have in other leagues,” Wilson said, pointing to the model used in the NFL and NBA.
- Dan Rosen: Rosen wouldn’t be surprised if there was a recommendation for a tweak or more done to the overtime format.
