Having a shootout in a championship game is a travesty.
We recently saw the gold medal game at the World Junior Hockey Championship end in a shootout and it was an anti-climatic and terrible way to end what was an incredibly fantastic hockey game.
It seems like such a waste to end a game of that magnitude and of that quality in a skills competition.
Is the overtime format perfect?
No.
You can still have games end in fluky and terrible ways but at least you have players on the ice who are playing the game the way it was meant to be played and not being given free shots at the goalie.
And the World Juniors is not the only situation where a shootout has decided a championship game within the last month.
The Toronto Football Club also endured a devastating lose in a shootout, as they lost to Seattle in the Major League Soccer championship game.
The game ended 0-0 after regulation and extra time, with Seattle winning the shootout 4-3.
The worst part about it was Seattle was crowned league champions despite being outshot 19-3, with none of those three shots actually hitting the net.
How can you be considered the best team in the league if you fail to get a shot on goal through the entire game?
Shootouts, that is how.
It should not be this way.
Imagine going to see the Broncos play and they are in the league championship series, game seven with the score tied after regulation and they play an entire overtime period. Then the league says instead of playing the second overtime they were going straight to a shootout.
Not exactly what the fans came to see, especially if the Broncos lose despite dominating the game.
I am of the opinion that we need to let them play.
Even in the regular season where the meaning of the game is slightly diminished.
The three-on-three overtime is, in my opinion, a much more exciting way to end the game.
In the playoffs it should be five-on-five continuous overtime until someone scores but we should make the regular season continuous three-on-three sudden death overtime.
It is a terrible shame to see games end in such a skill based way.
And sure it is commonplace to use the shootout in both international hockey and in soccer but it should not be.
We value entertainment and there is nothing more entertaining, or heart stopping for some, than overtime in a championship game.
When we look back at that Canada/USA game we are going to remember that shootout just as much as how spectacular the game was and we should not.
And sure we remember endings to games as much as the rest of the game all the time, like the John Carlson overtime winner in the 2010 World Junior final in Saskatoon.
But if you ask me, while both were equally as bitter a pill to swallow I would still rather watch Carlson rip that wrister short side past Martin Jones in overtime than I would watch Troy Terry slide the puck through Carter Hart’s five hole in the shootout.
It is time we stop making championship games finish in a shootout and time to start letting the players on the field of play decide the games amongst themselves.
