NHL shootouts rising from dead; is 3-on-3 OT still working?

On Tuesday night in the NHL, four of the nine games played were tied at the end of regulation.

That’s a greater percentage of overtime games than the average this season and since the shootout was hoisted upon an unsuspecting public in 2005 – about 25 percent of all games go to overtime. 

But of those four overtime games, three ended in a shootout. And if you feel like you’ve seen more than a few end that way recently, you’re not paranoid: In the last three weeks (since Nov. 17), there have been 18 shootouts, accounting for more than half the season’s total (35) of skills competitions to end games.

Here’s the picture for this season so far, and how it looked last season in the NHL:

(Through 416 games)

NHL 2014-15

(Full Season)

Games Ended In Regulation

315 (75.7%)

924 (75.1%)

Games Ended In Overtime

Games Ended In Shootout

35 (8.4%)

170 (13.8%)

So shootouts are down, but not as dramatically as we saw in the AHL last season, which was the catalyst for the NHL to attempt to change its overtime format. 

Through 394 games last season in the AHL, 75.3 percent of its overtime games had ended before the shootout, compared to 65.3 percent in the NHL this season; 24.7 percent ended in the shootout, compared to 34.7 percent of NHL overtime games through 416 contests this season.

Now, the uptick in shootout games passes one eye test: NHL teams are gradually being more careful with the puck in the 3-on-3.

They’re limiting long shots that can be turned around for chances the other way. They’re being more methodical about it. Teams like the Ottawa Senators (six shootouts), Toronto Maple Leafs (seven) and New Jersey Devils (six) are far outpacing other teams in the number of skills competitions they’re participated in. (Including three against one another.)

You may not be able to coach the fun out of the 3-on-3, but you can certainly put a damper on the party.

But the bigger issue here for the NHL – or rather for the NHLPA, since they’re the ones that spiked the format out of safety concerns – is whether the AHL’s format last season of four minutes of 4-on-4 plus three minutes of 3-on-3 was the right mix of poison to kill the shootout.

Consider these numbers from the AHL, regarding games that went to overtime in different formats (games are through Tuesday for the current season):

2013-14 (5:00 of 4v4) – 35.3% in OT, 64.7% in SO

2014-15 (7:00 of mixed) – 75.0% in OT, 25.0% in SO

2015-16 (5:00 of 3v3) – 58.6% in OT, 41.4% in SO

As the AHL changed its overtime format to the 3-on-3 over five minutes we see in the NHL this season, its shootouts started to rise – even higher than what we have in the NHL thus far (34.7 percent).

So 3-on-3 has reduced shootouts in the NHL this season, but they’re creeping back up. To really drop the hammer on the silly skills competition takes a seven-minute overtime, based on last year’s AHL numbers.

But, again, that’s not what the players wanted. Even if by and large they don’t want the shootout either.

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Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at [email protected] or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.

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