The best part about the Detroit Red Wings’ 3-2 overtime win Thursday against the St. Louis Blues wasn’t Pavel Datsyuk’s winner with three seconds left in OT.
It wasn’t that they rallied for the victory after surrendering Alexander Steen’s game-tying goal with 48 seconds left in regulation time.
No, the best part of the evening was that the game didn’t get to the shootout.
“It was huge,… Detroit captain Henrik Zetterberg said. “Everyone knows our record in the shootout (1-7) so we didn’t want to go that far.
“It was nice to finish it off in overtime.…
Perhaps that explains the fondness in the Detroit dressing room for the concept of trying three-on-three overtime before getting to the shootout.
“I think they should still do four-on-four for five minutes,… Detroit left-winger Justin Abdelkader said. “Three-on-three would be entertaining, too - maybe go three, four, five minutes of three-on-three. It would make it really exciting, and then maybe if you have to go to shootout, but I think a lot of games would finish in four-on-four or three-on-three.…
Detroit goalie Petr Mrazek and defenseman Xavier Ouellet both experienced the three-on-three experiment currently underway in the American Hockey League and think it would be a fan favourite.
“I played once in Grand Rapids this year against Texas,… Mrazek said. “They scored like 1:11 into overtime, three-on-three. It’s different game. You have lots of space on the ice and lots of chances back and forth.
“Maybe they had 3-4 chances, we had 3-4 chances, too. You have lots of space on the ice and lots of chances back and forth, two-on-ones, in the zone one-on-one battles, lots of scoring chances.…
It’s the end-to-end excitement that Ouellet feels would push fans to the edge of their seats, and he can only imagine how intense the pace and skill level would be in the NHL.
“I think it's really good,… Ouellet said. “The fans love it. I think if players like Zetterberg and (Pavel) Datsyuk and (Gustav) Nyquist and (Riley) Sheahan would be on the ice three-on-three, it could be really impressive for the fans.
“There’s a lot of space. It's two-on-one after three-on-one after two-on-0 after breakaway … it goes really, really fast and there's a lot of opportunities and impressive plays - flips and saucer passes, stuff like that. Big saves, too. It was screaming after screaming after screaming, which was really cool for us to play.…
Though he was 2-1 in three three-on-three overtimes in Grand Rapids, Ouellet isn’t a supporter of the concept merely because it’s been successful for his team.
“It's so hard to lose in a shootout,… Ouellet said. “It's not a hockey game, it's a skills competition; it's one-on-one. It's not a team sport anymore.…
Not everyone on the Detroit roster is anti-shootout, however.
I personally do (like the shootout),… left-winger Tomas Tatar said. “I feel like it’s fun. Shootouts are fun for players and I think fans like it, too. It’s a spin of roulette. You never know which way it will go. It’s 50-50.…
Abdelkader accepts that even if the three-on-three plan were to be adopted by the NHL, the shootout would still likely remain part of the OT equation.
“This is sports and fans are the biggest part of this sport,… Abdelkader said. “If they like the shootout, then we’ve got to keep the shootout, but maybe they go to three-on-three instead of four-on-four.
“I’d still like to see four-on-four and then maybe three-on-three, whether it’s half and half or whatever it is.…
OT Hero Datsyuk’s game winner was the seventh OT winner of his career and his first since April 5, 2013, also in a 3-2 win, this one at Colorado over the Avalanche.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Datsyuk’s seven overtime goals are tied for fourth on the franchise’s all-time list with Zetterberg and Herbie Lewis, a Wing from 1928-39. Sergei Fedorov is the franchise all-time leader with 12 OT tallies.
Datsyuk has more career points against the Blues (25-50-75 in 65 games) than against any other opponent.
Tatar’s Tallies Tatar scored Thursday for the second time in as many games and now has 18 goals, one shy of the career high he set last season.
“Yeah, it’s always nice to score, always a good feeling, but it’s more important we win,… Tatar said.
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