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Quick poll today.
The American Hockey League has been trying out this overtime format of switching from 4-on-4 to 3-on-3 midway through overtime in an attempt to get more results before the teams go to a shootout. It has worked toward that goal, and I am 99% sure we will see this in the NHL next season. But should we really?
I am not sure EVERYTHING scales. The AHL is NOT the NHL. Especially when it comes to the players. The talent level in the NHL and the experience of the players and coaches is much more evident when it comes to situational hockey, and 3-on-3 is most definitely a coachable situation.
Teams WILL still be able to find conservative schemes, and it really feels gimmicky. The men's league I played in for years went to 3-on-3 overtime and then overtime without goalies. This was down because the ice was booked at the top of the hour, not to make the game better.
And these rules are rules that don't encourage "going for it" or teams "playing to win." Entertaining hockey is hockey played by teams playing to win, not teams "playing NOT to lose."
Three points for a regulation win. That is a rule designed to get teams to play for the win. That fixes ALL of this. That is the rule we should be trying out at the AHL level. Everyone is terrified that teams will run away with it and be uncatchable if they get three points for a regulation win.
I think that the fact is this fake parity created by the NHL to keep teams "close in the standings" is a trick that we all have figured out at this point. When fans are saying teams eight points behind with 20 games to go are "out of it" what the hell is this parity proving? The points for OT losses are killing the sport and everyone knows it. The three-point games are killing it. My point is either we go to 2 points for a win, any win, or we go to three points for a regulation win. What we have now is insulting to the fans and infuriating to the teams.
The fact that we are now looking at 3-on-3 hockey and NOT three points for a regulation win shows how misguided it all is. We are missing the cause and effect completely. We are covering up and need to have some guts to allow this sport to be ....well a sport.
With a winner and a loser.
We will discuss all this and more on the buzzcast at 1pm