Gone Puck Wild
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GonePuckWild Changes Three NHL Rules for Next Season

By Lake Martin

ST LOUIS, MISSOURI - JANUARY 24: Commissioner Gary Bettman speaks to the media prior to the 2020 NHL All-Star Skills Competition at Enterprise Center on January 24, 2020 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
ST LOUIS, MISSOURI - JANUARY 24: Commissioner Gary Bettman speaks to the media prior to the 2020 NHL All-Star Skills Competition at Enterprise Center on January 24, 2020 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /
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2. Overtime Alterations

Minnesota Wild, Kevin Fiala. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
Minnesota Wild, Kevin Fiala. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

Three-on-Three Overtime is incredible to watch. It allows the best and most skilled players on each team to showcase their abilities. It’s an absolute shame that it’s only five minutes long…

…So let’s change that.

Make Overtime ten minutes long. More games would certainly end within the overtime period.

Now, a strategy many teams implement in overtime is they elect to protect the possession of the puck and will exit the offensive zone willingly, which can stop the flow/momentum of the game.

So, implement a shot clock. From the time that the puck is possessed over the Center Ice Line to the offensive half of the ice, the team has thirty seconds to put the puck on net. If the offensive team’s shot gets saved or hits the post/crossbar, and they regain the puck, shot clock resets.

There would be some minor things to work out, like if a puck deflected out of the zone with a blocked shot/save, but it would maintain the momentum and excitement of overtime.

Finally, eliminate the Shootout. It likely wouldn’t be necessary with the extended period and/or shot clock idea, but it’s also simply not that exciting and frankly not that fair for the goalie.

Now the league is moving to promote more scoring, so it would seem that making the shootout in favor of the shooter would make sense, but shooters don’t use that opportunity to create excitement. There are too many times when shooters will almost nearly stop their forward momentum (or even go backward with their momentum), stickhandle until they get the goalie completely out of position, and score after waiting out the goalie.

For Instance, THIS season:

Or how about LAST season:

Or what about LAST season, THE VERY NEXT GAME, SAME TEAM AND PLAYER:

And the season PRIOR:

By eliminating the shootout, you wouldn’t have to change the points system. Just award a point to each team if the game isn’t finished in overtime as a tie.

If you HAVE to have a winner, then adopt the 3 point system, still eliminate the shootout, and then just continue overtime- if necessary.

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