So what do you guys think of the new shoot out rule to prevent tie games? I've never been a big fan of them in international hockey, but I'm being optimistic for the new year.
It appears they will keep the previous rule change of the winner getting 2 points and the loser in either overtime (or the shootout) will get 1 point.
I'm curious to see how this will affect teams' efforts to break a tie during overtime or the final few minutes of the 3rd period. Will they just try to kill time to allow their snipers the chance to win, or will they increase their efforts to score to avoic the shootout? Should be interesting to see.
NHL.com has a great summary of the rule changes and some good diagrams too.
"Following a scoreless five-minute overtime, three players from each team participate in the order the coach selects.
Each team takes three shots. The team with the most goals after those six shots is the winner.
If the score remains tied, the shootout will proceed to a "sudden death" format.
Regardless the number of goals scored during the shootout portion of overtime, the final score recorded for the game will give the winning team one more goal than the score at the end of regulation time."