While there are many arguments against a shootout, I haven't yet
 seen my favorite one listed. That is simply, some games deserve to be
 ties. Especially in hockey, where scoring is minimal and on any given
 night almost can beat anyone, it stands to reason that during a course of
 a season, several games will end up with neither team being significantly
 better than the other. If the teams play a near equal game, why do we have
 to contrive ways to find a winner?
 
        I think that during the regular season, the five minute o.t. is a
 good comprimse. Both teams get a quarter-period to give it one last shot.
 The o.t. ias exciting for the fans and the players. But after 65 minutes,
 if the teams are even, then they both deserve the point. In my mind, a tie
 is as definitive a resolution as a win or a loss. A deserved tie is just
 as worthwhile as a deserved win.
 
        In the playoffs under most circumstances, you obviously have to
 play until you have a winner. I say you do just that, even if you have to
 go until 3 am. The team that won the o.t. may be a disadvantage for their
 next game (if they are playing a different opponent) but there is nothing
 wrong with this, either. The fresh opponent, who won their game in
 regulation, should enjoy the advantage that their win brought, while the
 tired team has to pay the consequences of going through an extra session
 (or sessions).
 
        It's a terrible, overused analogy, but decising a game via
 shoot-outs is like deciding a baseball game via home run derby: a
 multi-faceted game is reduced to two phases and the team concept disappears
 entirely. "Excitement" doesn't seem like a justifiable excuse for this type
 of Balkanization.
 
        When the two teams are even, neither deserves to win or lose. The
 teams also do not deserve to have an artificial winner chosen by
 artificial means. The teams deserve a point each, and they should go home
 proud at what they accomplished on the ice.
 
--
7000 miles. 10 days. 26 states. 1 cop.                   Rob Callum
Des Moines to New York.                 [log in to unmask]
Sault Ste. Marie to New Orleans.
                   --11 June to 20 June 1993.