Folks who were around last summer may recall that I posted a
questionnaire dealing with the then-proposed shootout and presented
the results to Hockey East.  The sentiment at that time was heavily
against the shootout as proposed, with many respondents indicating
that they had no problem with games ending in ties.
 
The league adopted the measure anyways, but I can tell you that the
results were indeed reviewed by the commissioner.
 
We shouldn't expect that any poll will affect policy as such.  But
this doesn't mean that the concerns were ignored.  One concern voiced
was that there would be confusion since the games were to be
considered wins in HE and ties for NC$$ selection.  The league agreed
that this was a potential problem and after I presented an alternative
proposal to HE, it was adopted.  This proposal had shootouts listed as
ties in the standings with a new column added for SO wins.  There were
a number of HOCKEY-L folks who had good input into this proposal, as I
mentioned at the time.
 
Early in the season, it was recognized simultaneously, it seemed, by
HOCKEY-L people and by the league that a then-unrecognized problem
existed in that teams could gain as much in the standings by tying and
winning a shootout as they could from winning outright.  That is how
we wound up with the new point structure.  I can't say HOCKEY-L
affected this, however, since I know the commissioner was working out
alternative point structures at the same time I happened to have
discussed the problem with him.
 
I am inclined to think chances are good that the shootout will not be
around next year.  I have no inside info and the league has not actually
gotten together and discussed the issue, but it seems that a majority
of coaches, at least, may favor getting rid of it.  I wouldn't put it
past them to come up with something different, but that is only my
opinion and I'm not sure what it could be.  One possibility I have
thought of is to encourage fewer ties by awarding points to OT losers.
This could involve each game being worth 4 pts: 4 for a regulation
win, 3 for an OT win, 2 for a tie, 1 for an OT loss, and 0 for a
regulation loss.  I will admit that I'm not convinced that even this
would result in more teams trying to win a game in regulation or in OT.
 
But I am inclined to believe we will see a return to the standard
2-1-0 structure for 1995-96.
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                                            [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93