French insider dares to suggest ridiculous playoff overtime format!

Clearly, he can’t handle it…

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HockeyFeed
Published 4 years ago
French insider dares to suggest ridiculous playoff overtime format!
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In the regular season, I watch overtime with urgency. One team needs to score before we have to head into the dreadful shootout and see the most boring part of the game. 

Don’t get me wrong: you sometimes get impressive puck-handing moves and goals, and some goalies do put on a show to stop every shot coming at them, but the real excitement is missing. 

One of the many things I love about playoff hockey is the full 20-minute overtime, 5 on 5, do or die, living on the edge. And then if no one finds the back of the net: it keeps going. 

We felt it last night in the double overtime between the St. Louis Blues and Dallas Stars, and even if you weren’t a fan of Patrick Maroon or the Blues, for the few seconds when the buzzer went off and the crowd went wild: you were thrilled. 


Because overtime hockey is awesome. 

And so when a French insider from Montreal, Richard Labbe of La Presse who covers the Canadiens during the regular season, suggested that we go back to a shootout session after one period of overtime during the postseason, I was insulted. 


He is right in the sense: the players are tired. We know that and Blues goalie reminded us again of that issue when he revealed his fatigue after the game during an interview. 

“It was fun for the first three or four periods,” Binnington said. “Then I started to get a little tired. We fought until the end. We found a way. It’s been working for us.”

However, we cannot insert shootouts in the playoff game. It’s not worthy of its presence in the level of intensity fans feel during overtime. Especially a double OT in a crucial Game 7. It is a team sport: it shouldn't one player, and one goalie who has all of the pressure to decide the faith of the rest of the roster. 

Some fans have suggested a different look to the overtime periods, saying it should be 5 on 5 for the first OT, then 4 on 4 if it heads into double overtime, and 3 on 3 after that. 


What do you think? Should shoutout come into the playoff game? Should it stay the same or are some tweaks welcomed in your book? 

Source: La Presse