I'll reply to a few related posts in this one message.
 
Tony Buffa writes:
>Thanks for the responses on the AP score reporting of HE shootouts.  My
>main point is that it appears confusing to the novice, and I still think
>that is true.  Whatever.
 
I think more people understand it today than a month ago.  It is new,
so it is natural that it will cause confusion.  There was certainly no
expectation that it would be a smooth process and that everyone would
pick it up right away.  The goal was to make it as easy for people to
understand as possible and to allow the shootout to succeed or fail on
the ice, rather than because of confusion in how the scores and
standings should be reported.  I think that this goal has been reached.
 
>I joined the list in May, so maybe this has all been hashed over, but I
>too think the shootout is a rotten idea.  Was there discussion about
>giving THREE POINTS for a win (any win, even OT) versus only one for a
>tie, in order to stimulate teams to try to break the tie in OT or not play
>for a tie?  Then also, perhaps to extend OT to 10 minutes??
 
There was discussion of these issues on HOCKEY-L.  But none of them
touched the heart of the matter, which is that the league believed
that shootouts in the regular season would be exciting to most fans
and stimulate interest in the league and the sport.  Thus far, the
experiment has proven successful, IMO.
 
Again, the reason for the shootout was not really to break ties - that
seems clearer to me now than it did before.  It was to increase fan
interest.
 
Ryan Robbins writes:
>I, for one, feel cheated whether my team wins or loses a shootout.
>If my team loses the shootout I'm disappointed because the other
>team leaves with an extra point for doing almost nothing. If my
>team wins the shootout I'm disappointed because it's just 3 points;
>it's not 5.
 
But you are not the fan the shootout is meant to appeal to.  You've
just said that you won't be satisfied with a tie game no matter who
wins.  Then the shootout won't affect that.  However, the evidence is
overwhelming that most fans do seem to find the shootout exciting and
that it does improve the perception of the sport.
 
>Can you imagine baseball getting rid of extra innings and having a
>home run derby? Yuck!
 
This really isn't a valid comparison.  That's because baseball
doesn't have ties.  And even in HE, a shootout game is still recorded
as a tie.  The shootout doesn't exist to break the tie.
 
I think of it this way: by virtue of the game ending in a tie, both
teams receive two points, and both teams have earned the right to
enter a new competition that earns one extra point for the winner.
It doesn't mean that BU was one point better than Maine in the game.
It means that BU was one point better in the shootout.  That's all.
 
A more valid baseball comparison might be a 5-5 game after nine
innings (or 9 innings + a prescribed number of extra innings) going in
the books as a tie for both teams, and then a home run derby is held
for an additional point to go to the winner.
 
>Do shootouts make the game more exciting? I don't think so.
 
I understand your opinion and you have the right to feel that way, but
there is strong proof that you are in the minority.  Even a poll I
conducted over the summer on HOCKEY-L showed that 76% of the
respondents, regardless of their opinion on the worth of shootouts,
thought they were exciting.  That is what HE wants to appeal to.
 
Deron Treadwell writes:
>Maine fans have no
>trouble getting excited when playing BU, but they did not get into the
>shootout much at all.
 
Maybe that is because Maine led much of the way and perhaps should
have won in regulation before BU came back to tie.  It seems natural
to me that fans might be disappointed in anything less than a tie if
their team led much of the way - or if their team was expected to win.
 
There is also the fact that they have done poorly in SOs (1-3).  I'd
be interested to see what happens if Maine does win one at home.
 
I have been at or seen on tv 6 of the 9 shootouts.  Maine has been the
only place that wasn't rocking to the foundation.  Maybe the fans were
already used to the outcome. :-)
 
I also have to reiterate that according to commissioner Bob DeGregorio,
the feedback to both the league office and NESN has been heavily
one-sided in favor of the shootouts.  It is possible that this will
change, but at least right now, the evidence is very much on the side
of the shootout.  That cannot be argued.
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                                            [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93