Linkorama: the shoot out...

I have been reading the various posts around the college hockey world and here is a run down of some of the opinions on the CCHA going to the shoot out to decide conference games.

Here is what Gandalf from Sixty Minutes. No Alibis. No Regrets. Had to say on the matter.

have any issues w/ a game of hockey ending as a tie. If two teams battle it out for 60+ minutes and the score is tied, so be it. I remember when college football had ties. In the early 90's the Badgers (who had sucked for how long before Barry turned things around) tied Ohio State. At the time that was a big deal, then a few seasons later someone got the idea to eliminate them and add the horrible OT format college football has now. While the shootout is better than that joke, if ties have been good enough for all these decades why is it such a big deal now?

Here is what Brad Elliot Schlossman had to say on the matter.

The CCHA is the first conference to do it and possibly the only one to use it this season. WCHA commish Bruce McLeod has previously said that the WCHA will not be using it this year.

Shootout results will not be used when compiling the NCAA tournament. They will still be considered ties. Shootout victories will impact CCHA standings, though. Point system is: two points for a win, one point for a shootout loss.

Three players will be used in the shootout. Home team gets to decide if it wants to shoot first or second. If tied after the first three players, the coach has to go to different guys in sudden death. We'll call this the Jonathan Toews rule.

Will this system carry over to other conferences eventually?

Chris from Western college hockey had this to say... I would say that we probably can mark him down as not being for them?

This was almost a foregone conclusion after the NCAA rules committee approved shootouts to decide regular season games. Shootouts are a topic that has been beaten to death, but while they are gimmicky, this should make CCHA hockey even more exciting this year.

The Blog that Yost Built had this opinion... Hum, I like what he has to say.

I'm mixed on the addition of shootouts. I like them in the NHL because they're exciting as hell and there are a possible 164 points during the regular season, so a few extra aren't going to make a huge difference. In the CCHA there are only 56 points available and last year a .500 record earned Ferris State the #5 overall seed. It's easy to see how being good in shootouts could give a team a significant boost in the conference standings.

My preferred method would have been a 10-minute 4-on-4 overtime, and if it's tied after that, it's tied. I bet you would get a winner more often than not and it doesn't really deviate too much from the game as a whole. That said, shootouts are really exciting and there's no chance I'd turn one off. I'm just not sure they have a place in a 28-game season.

Here is what the Bronco Hockey Blog had to say...

It is perfectly OK for a game to end in a tie, no one is cheated, the fans aren't lacking for excitement, and the current overtime system doesn't need fixing. There is no need to settle a close game with something that doesn't even closely resemble a team effort. I hope this "experiment" fails miserably

Colorado College Hockey had this to say...

Every hockey fan has an opinion on the shootout in the NHL and especially college hockey. Well now the arguments will increase as CCHA has decided to implement the SO to decide their games for 08-09. It will be interesting to see if 1) it draws the "excitement" that those in charge want (without being a ratings gimmick) and 2) if other conferences follow in line before the season starts. Time will tell, all the details from CCHA here

This is what UNDER REVIEW had to say about the shootout...

I’m just not sure it’s fair for a team to play great for 65 minutes and then lose a point to an opponent because they can score without a defense in front of the goalie. But I will admit I do get caught up in watching shootouts in the NHL and I will be interested in seeing how this plays out in the CCHA.

I am curious how the stats will be implemented for the CCHA. How will the shootout win look in the CCHA standings, as a win, a tie or something else? In other words will the CCHA still show wins, losses and ties, with ties including both shootout wins and losses. If not, will a second set of CCHA team stats need to be tracked (including stats for possible non-conference teams playing a CCHA team that agrees to play a under the shootout format) so the PWR RPI can be calculated? How will individual stats be determined? Will shootout stats count towards a player’s individual records or will they be excluded?

At the end of the day I will concede my purest hat and consider that shootouts could be an exciting addition to college hockey. Can’t wait to see how it works in the CCHA.