Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought one of
the reasons that the OT periods were shortened from 10
minutes to 5 was because of time.  The idea was, by the time
the ice was resurfaced and the entire OT period played (if
necessary) the game would have lasted an extra half an hour
or so, making the roadtrip that much harder for the traveling
team.
 
With a shootout, granted you don't need to resurface, but
it does take time for each team to figure out who's going to
shoot, and then switching back and forth between the two goalies
takes time as well.  (In the gold medal game in the Olympics,
each goalie came off the ice before the other was taking the
next shot.)  It seems to me that by the time you do all that,
you could have resurfaced and played a longer OT period, thus
giving ALL the players on both teams the opportunity to contribute
to the final outcome of the game.
 
Paulette Dwen
Cornell '89
Let's Go Red!