Overtime in Playoff Hockey

Regular season ties in the National Hockey League are, under the current rule system, settled by shootouts. This is an extreme improvement over the old system where ties, after a brief overtime period, ended in just that: ties. The new system makes the game more popular among fans as shootouts are perhaps the single most exciting events in all of sports. On top of that, it eliminates the frustration for the players that is a game culminating in a tie. One team is guaranteed to pick up that extra point, and it does wonders for the game of hockey.

The playoffs, though, are a different story. Under the current system (one not recently changed, unlike the regular season rule), there is no shootout in the playoffs. If sixty minutes is not enough to settle a bought, an extra twenty minute, sudden-death overtime is played. If that is not enough, another twenty minute, sudden death overtime is played. This process continues until one team scores. People who do not understand hockey often criticize this method of determining a winner. Either the game is too long, or they just do not understand why a shootout isn't used instead. If a shootout system is good enough for the greatest single-sport international tournament in the world, The World Cup, why isn't a shootout good enough for the NHL? The answer is simple: it is a different game. Shootouts are part of soccer. They always have been, always will be. Shootouts, though, have not always been a part of hockey. Long, grueling overtime periods, though, are a staple of the NHL. A shootout, while providing a brief moment of exhilaration for fans, would take away a part of the game that has lasted since its creation.

There is nothing more thrilling than staying up until the wee hours of the morning, watching your team engaged in an epic, multi-overtime battle against its conference rival. It is the single most suspenseful event in all of sports. If you are not a hockey fan, just imagine watching your favorite team scrapping and clawing against your most hated opponent, knowing that the next goal could send your team vaulting into the Stanley Cup Finals, and send your rival home for the summer. It is the definition of suspense. The game creeps into that fifth overtime period, the players are exhausted after having played over two full games of hockey, and you watch and wait for that first mistake to be made.

Lord Stanley's Cup is the oldest trophy in all of professional sports, making the Stanley Cup Playoffs the most incredible, intense post-season in the world. A shootout simply would not do Lord Stanley justice.