Are shootouts merely ties? This is the thought that runs through my head as I contemplate two sides of the argument while trying on new black boots at Bloomingdales. One more shootout debate Juice really? Well sort of. Look, I can’t help it!!! My friends at NHL Connect: 7Deuce and LW3H got me thinking. I’d rather think about hockey than chat with the overly friendly chicka sitting next to me buying ugly pink tory burch flats.
(Nooo honey... those shoes are hideous. I think my grandma wears them. Please, please don’t make me lie to you and say they are cute just to avoid having to talk to you anymore….)
There I was, getting a fabulous deal on a pair of boots that I cannot even wear right now because I have a strained (or sprained) ligament in my foot (or ankle), when LeftWing3Hugger’s comment to 7DeuceKid’s blog of today started to turn in my mind.
Our good friend and master-statistician Lefty has taken the stance that a shootout is really a tie. His opinion is representative of a good segment of the hockey fan world. The shootout remains one of those game features that you either love or detest. No in between.
And Me? Little Ol’ me?
Why, sweetie darling, I’m a confessed shootout-aholic.
So much so that when Lefty called a shootout “basically a tie”, I immediately recoiled in horror, fainted back into the church pew and had to be fanned back to consciousness by several large churchgoers wearing big colorful hats.
Upon sitting up in the church pew, straightening my big electric blue hat and skirt (think Christina Applegate in The Sweetest Thing) I launched into auto-argue response and to my surprise here is the first argument that popped into my head.
The main (some would say sole) purpose of playing a hockey game is to be the team with the most goals at the end of regulation. Its true, go ahead, ask Ddyte- he has looked this up in the NHL Rulebook.
Theoretically, a team who is down a goal in the third should be fighting to get 2 more goals. You know, to win. However, the shootout changes game strategy. A coach who finds his team down one goal in the third, need only assess whether his team has a better shootout percentage against the opposing team and goalie, and assuming he feels they do, then the new game strategy becomes to tie the game up, rather than grind out 2 extra goals.
In some respects (changing the fundamental strategy of the game) it’s the equivalent of the last minute of repetitious “foul time” in professional basketball.
Shootouts change the composition of the game so that the goal to win in regulation is no longer the main goal. Competition is strategized.
Accordingly one might think I concluded the following:
THE SHOOTOUT CAUSES A CHANGE IN THE WAY THE GAME IS PLAYED THAT IS NOT NECESSARILY REFLECTIVE OF THE HIGHEST LEVEL OF COMPETITION.
That said, I still believe in the shootout, and here is why.
Shootouts allow for the demonstration of player skill sets that are crucial and important to the game. The Shootout is pure, it is the essence of hockey. It’s the most primitive form of the game, but requires a showing of the highest skill levels. One shooter, one puck, one goalie, one net. Every shooter and every goalie should be good at a one-on-one scenario. Therefore, I advocate its continued presence in the game.
And I argue that because the shootout causes both shooters and goalies to absolutely perform at their highest skill level, it can heighten competition, or at the very least enhance it. Although it isn’t the format of the traditional game, it can invoke the most intense competition in any game on any given day.
So in the end does the shootout lessen competition? I think the answer is that the shootout changes the type of competition from a group effort to that of two individuals. I don’t think anyone can argue that competition dies because of the shootout. The question becomes is this change in competition so flawed that it denigrates the form of the game?
I leave you to decide that for yourself.
Me? Little ol’ Me, in the electric blue boogaloo hat? Well, I have decided. I like the shootout. For me the opportunity to exhibit the one-on-one skill set is a valuable and meaningful addition to the game, and to the extent it can be argued that the shootout detracts from or lessens the competitive nature of the game, I think it’s a fair trade off.
Ps: yes I bought the boots, and yes, THIS time I got a left and a right boot. They are gonna go great with this electric blue dress (but what doesn’t). And the Hat? Yea the hat is fan-tabulous.
pps: I know I owe you a Cali hat trick finale, stay tuned.
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