Concerning the Olympic Gold hockey matchup, shootouts ARE a completely
inappropriate way of ending a hockey match, particularly a hard fought
important playoff game.  The Canada/Sweden match up is a prime example.
 
I'd like to repost an article by John C.K. Edwards about this.  It was
originally posted in rec.sports.hockey and I hope that John doesn't
mind, I think it really drives the point home.  It did for me.
 
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Date: Sun, 2 Jan 1994 04:32:48 GMT
 
In a previous article, [log in to unmask] () says:
 
>I was wondering what the opinion was regarding adding a shootout to decide NHL
>games.  I've gone to **only** four IHL games this year (but two more next
>week), and one was decided by the shootout.  I love it -- just the skater
>one-on-one with the goalie, it's so dramatic and exciting.  It seems like that
>playing 65 minutes of hockey with no winner is just anticlimatic.
 
Car crashes are exciting, does that mean we should see more of them? :)
 
Actually I think shootouts are a great idea, so great it should be exported
to other sports. Why not decide basketball games that are tied the same way?
Wow, just think. If the Bulls and Magic are tied, we can have Scottie Pippen
and Shaq go one-on-one to decide it. Oooeee, the excitement. Maybe we
should have field-goal kicking contests to decide football games. (off the
freeway, off the scoreboard, split the uprights). What crud.
 
I don't see why a hockey game should be decided by something that isn't
hockey. A hockey game should only by decided by teams playing hockey. A
shootout isn't hockey. Hockey is a team game, not a one-on-one sport, so it
shouldn't be decided by a one-on-one confrontation.
 
I've got a better idea. Let's have the zamboni driver come out after a tie
game and flip a big coin at centre ice. The home team would call the toss.
WOW!!!! The excitement. The drama as the coin sails up in the air and the
captain calls "heads." The anticipation of the result as it lands, and the
referee says....IT'S HEADS! The home team wins!!!!!!! WOW!!! That sure was
exciting. You could even keep stats on it. You could track what a zamboni
driver is most likely to toss. You could track players' calling percentages.
Fans could second-guess him on sports talk shows! "Why'd that moron call
tails? He should know that our driver mostly tosses heads!! Let's trade him
and get someone who know what he's doing."
 
Ridiculous, you say? Well, it's just as much hockey as a shootout. If ties
truly are evil to be avoided at all costs (and I'm not convinced they are),
then why not just keep PLAYING HOCKEY? Why go to this artificial crap?
What is wrong with playing hockey? That is what you paid to see, right?
 
John
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Thanks,
Dan