Associate Professor of Biochemistry
Phone: (502)852-5752; Fax: (502)852-6222
 
The ECHL has had a team in Louisville for a few yrs and has drawn 3-4,000 fans
per game. They use shootouts with 2 points to the winner and 1 to the loser
and it seems to be very popular and exciting for the fans. HOWEVER, I should
point out that this is the land of the very knowledgeable basketball fan and
these folks know next to nothing about hockey. The fact that there is no
significant defense in the league doesn't matter since they don't know what
backchecking is. I have had to explain the difference between iceing,
offsides, delayed offsides to some fans even after they had been to several
games. Fighting and Shootouts are important to such fans which I relate to
their love of "Pro" wrasslin or to the 20 second attention span of many of the
younger fans.
 
Based on such personal experiences, I believe shootouts would be popular with
most average fans, but not the more knowledgeable ones. I don't think
Hockey-Ler's are representative of the average fan as evidenced by the many
thoughtful perspectives on shootouts several months ago and currently.
 
I'm a hockey purist and think ties are fine, but would like to see some
incentive to go all-out in the entire overtime which I would prefer to be 10
min.
 
Like Arthur Mintz, I don't like the idea of games being worth EITHER 2 or 3
points and can't see much choice except for going to a 4 point system or a
0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2 which is equivalent.
 
So, In order to provide OT incentive and Point fairness, I vote for:
 
1. A Win = 4 (2); Tie = 2 (1); OT Win = 3 (1.5); OT Loss = 1 (0.5) System.
 
2. A 10 min OT with 3 pts to winner and 1 to loser.
 
3. Tie after OT = 2 Pts each; No Shootout.
 
(If we must have a Shootout, it should also be on a 3:1 Point ratio)
 
Making all games worth equal points and an OT win worth 3 times as much an OT
loss should provide the incentive to go for the win. Unfortunately, this
argument is strengthened by having an OT and Shootout and wanting to determine
your own fate while playing hockey as a team in OT rather than as individuals
in Shootout.