There is nothing more disappointing than watching 65 minutes of riveting hockey — back-and-forth play, bruising sequences and a fast-paced tempo — before each player skates out one by one to try to score to decide the winner.
It feels out of place. It feels inadequate. It feels like an injustice to the game that was just played.
The NHL introduced five-minute, five-on-five sudden-death overtime for the 1983-84 regular season, but believed too many games were still ending in ties. Despite switching to four-on-four overtime in 1999-2000, and beginning to award a point to teams that lost in OT, the league was still dissatisfied with how many games were ending in ties.
What is Gamechangers?
You’ve heard a referee explain a call and you’ve said this to yourself, to others or both:
“That’s such a dumb rule.”
You’ve been watching a game and you’ve said this to yourself, to others or both:
“Why don’t they change how they do that?”
We all follow sports. And we know when a rule needs changing or a league policy requires overhauling. So let’s do it.
Today begins a five-day series at The Post where our writers will argue for which rules need changing, what those changes should be and why. We’ll tackle the NFL, the NHL, the NBA, the WNBA and MLB — plus we’ll dabble in college sports, golf and soccer, too. No stone left unturned — and no silly rule left unchanged.
Some of our proposals are minor. Some of them are major. Some of them are completely radical.
Welcome to GameChangers by The Post.
— In our NFL series, we tackled the silliest rule in football, fixed the tanking problem and addressed the QB hypocrisy led by Patrick Mahomes.
After implementing the shootout in 2005-06 as part of a package of rule changes following the 2004-05 lockout, the NHL eventually felt too many games were ending in shootouts, too.
