Saturday, October 29, 2005

A Tale of Two Shootouts

Don't you just love this New NHL?

I watched the Blue Jacket Wild game last night which featured not only a shootout but a Sudden Death Shootout the first ever in the NHL. Instead of a dreary 1-1 tie ending as a dreary 1-1 tie like in the OLD NHL there occurred a mesmerizing 2-1 victory that people particularly Columbus people will talking about for years. On and on it went not only beyond the first three shooters but going all the way into the 5th round of sudden death where Letowski finally won it.
Letowski explained that by studying the approach his teammates took throughout the game he was able to beat Roloson for the game-winning score.

"A lot of the guys were trying to deke him and he was staying right with them," said Roloson. "I thought my best chance was to take a quick shot because that's how Hartigan scored."
Meanwhile down in Charlotte where I think the NHL's most exciting young up and coming team plays they had a wild shootout of a totally different but more traditional nature take place.
The Flyers led 2-0 early and 5-3 heading into the third period, but the Hurricanes outscored them 5-1 in the final 20 minutes. Carolina fought back with three straight goals to take a 6-5 lead on Staal's third of the night. The Hurricanes answered Sim's tying goal with Cullen's score.
Like I said a more traditional shootout won by the Canes going away 8-6. Aaaaaah, the New NHL, don't you just love it? All kinds of shootouts taking place.

Shootout Solutions

I'm basically OK with the Shootouts although I'd like the league to tweak the rules a little. They should make the Shootout 7 rounds instead of 3. It makes it much more of team participation contest than one between a few specialists. Plus, I've seen comebacks staged within Shootouts where clubs that started slow were able to win it in the later rounds... often pretty dramatically. Also I'd like to see the goalies have to go against each other in a round preferably the last round if it ended up tied. Pretty wild but hey, what the hell. However what I'd really like to see would be 5 minutes of OT after the first 5 that was 3 on 3 hockey played pond hockey style... no offsides, you can pass from anywhere to anywhere, first one to score wins or then we go to a Shootout.

Just a thought.


I'll be gone and without internet connection for a couple of daze, see you early next week.

3 comments:

The Acid Queen said...

Hey chief, the Hurricanes play in RALEIGH, not Charlotte.

Just sayin'.

Photomas said...

Seeeesh, what a moron I am. Your of course absolutely right Acid Queen. I don't know where I came up with that Charlotte brain fart. Man, did it stink. Thanks for visiting and commenting on this fellow Leo's site even if it was to tell me remove my head from my butt, feedback is always appreciated and needed around here. By the way I love your blog too and please accept my including it on my links list as a small token of my regret at misnaming the hometown of the most exciting and dynamic hockey team in the NHL today. The Carolina Hurricanes of Raleigh , North Carolina.

The Acid Queen said...

You're forgiven. Now go, and sin no more.