Bettman's Latest Bad Bargain.

It seems to me that this has been the Half-Season of the Hockey Shootout, and I, for one, have had it just about up to here with that.

Now, I don't claim to be a statistician or an analyst or even someone who usually cares about the numbers outside of PIM and goals/assists, but take a look at just the stats for the Penguins. As of their game against Boston, 12/20/07, they had been in SEVEN shootouts out of 34 games. That's close to 1/4 of their games that have ended in a glorified rookie training game.

The way I see it, going to shootout is almost a punishment for being too evenly matched with your opponent. Seriously, why is that a punishment? Isn't the NHL looking for a series of non-lopsided really good hard hockey games with all of their teams working as hard as they can? Sure they are, because that's what fans want to see. So why then, do they penalize them by forcing them into the shootout at the end?

As a fan, I detest the shootout with a burning passion usually reserved only for people who talk at the movies and take up more than one parking space with their giant gas-guzzling cars. If I wanted to see guys shoot one after another, I'd go watch a practice. The entire idea of a shootout really defeats the concept of enjoying hockey as a team sport. Instead of emphasizing the skill of the team as a whole, it breaks it down to being "player X" won the game. I don't care how big a fan you are of Player X, there was an entire team behind him, and there's no reason he should be the do-or-die of the entire game.

Also, the poor already-slightly-neurotic-goalies. The guys have already faced 60 minutes of action and stuff flying at them from all over, and now they're expected to pull out all the stops against the top three shooters on each team without any backup? Even though it may not look it, I'm sure those goalies rely on every single one of their teammates to keep the puck away at any given moment, and I'm sure there's still at least a minor feeling of dread when faced with a shootout. If Player X can win a a game for the entire team, Goalie Q will almost undoubtedly shoulder a good amount of the blame if his team loses.

Honestly, the shootout has got to go. I don't care if we replace it with playoff-esque continual periods until someone scores, I don't care if we just let them tie, hell, I'd be okay with some sort of skills competition that took into account the whole team, but if I came to see my entire team play, goddammit, I want my entire team to win together, not on the basis of how skilled one guy is at deking, faking, and finding the five hole. That's not a hockey game, that's training camp.

Also at Talk Hockey To Me

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Finally, a road win

My Stars finally won a game on the road this season (my recap of the game, which was pretty awesome, is here)! In seasons past, they've been a pretty good road team, but this season has been pretty bad (a 4-3 loss against Colorado, 5-1 loss to Nashville, and last Saturday's 2-1 OT loss to Chicago). Last night's game puts us at 3-2-2, and the Stars have edged past San Jose for current second place in the Pacific.

Anyone remember when the Pacific was one of the toughest divisions in hockey? You know, like, last season, when a Pacific team won the Cup? What happened to that? Not that the teams aren't doing well, but from what I've seen (which, admittedly, isn't as much as I'd like - I've seen every Stars game, but not all of the other teams' games), it's not looking nearly as good as last season. I'll chalk it up to the season still being fresh.

Now, I've said that the Stars won, and yet some Stars fans (the annoying ones) are all "that might as well have been a loss - the shootout isn't going to help them in the playoffs". While that may be true, the Stars still got their points, which will help lead them TO the playoffs. Whether they can get out of the first round is something only time can tell, really.

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Thank you hockey gods

Today I give thanks for allowing the Flames to WIN A SHOOT OUT for the first time this season. Coming into this season, Miikka Kiprusoff was 1-11 in the SO, stopping only 2 of 9 shooters this season, 13 of 32 last season. Pairing those atrocious stats with the Flames' inability to score during the SO makes for a higher than average stress level during overtime as I pray and hope and yell and go bananas hoping for anyone to score to save me the agony of watching the shoot out. The Flames are ranked 28th in the league with 2 OT/SO wins and 9 losses, the wins at home and 8 of those losses on the road. Have I mentioned the Flames road record also sucks? While being 27-6-1 at home is awesome (and league leading), being 7-15-8 on the road - meh, not so awesome.

Due to the wonderful schedule of the NHL, filling up empty spaces with more divisional play, the Flames have met the Wild five times so far with a 3-0-0-2 record so you can imagine the fear that struck my heart when Calgary tied the game late in the third making it 1-1 and failing to get the GWG during regulation. The overtime period draaaaaaaaaaagged on until the clock hit 00:0 and I hid behind a pillow, anticipating what was coming. Oh. my. goodness.

• CGY - Tanguay stopped. (No surprise.)
  
• MIN - Demitra stopped. (Okay, what? Kipper makes a pad save?)
• CGY - Amonte stopped. (Not really sure why he was out there...)
• MIN - Koivu stopped. (Double what? The league's leader in SO goals? Stopped?)
• CGY - Iginla scores. (HOLY shit DINAH! Slow as molasses down the ice but it worked)
• MIN - Bouchard stopped. (Kipper kicks out a leg to keep out PMB's spin-o-rama move)

Sweet cheese on a cracker, the Flames win the shoot out. Now, I don't know if you know, but I was taking a bit of a break from ye olde blog for a couple of days and was going to return today anyways with my renewed vigor but this makes it oh so much more sweeter. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you....

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