Last year and over the summer we had a lot of discussions about shootouts. I finally saw a game with a shootout that I enjoyed. Surprise! Our local sports channel, HTS, replaced a Washington Capitals game with an IHL game between the Houston Aeros and the Atlanta Knights. They were tied after 3 periods and so went to a shootout to end the game. It was very entertaining and I enjoyed it, even though I've always hated shootouts. The reason is that I didn't care who won the game. I was just interested in seeing an entertaining hockey game. As a matter of fact, I was starved for *any* hockey. I still don't like shootouts as a means of deciding a hockey game in which I'm rooting for one of the teams, but this was just for fun. (Atlanta lost, so I would probably be upset if I was an Atlanta fan.) It was also interesting because the Ferraro brothers were playing for Atlanta and an ex-Capital, Dave Tippett, is a player-coach for the Houston Aeros. Carol