Davis: NHL's playoff overtime rules reign, but some other stuff needs fine-tuning
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The NHL has some stupid rules that need to be changed, but no sport has a better tie-breaking format than hockey's overtime, particularly during the Stanley Cup playoffs.
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Next goal wins! Five-on-five, 20 minutes at a time until Max Domi or Alex Ovechkin — who each surprisingly tallied their first postseason OT winners this past week — scores the celebratory goal. Is there anything sweeter?
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Scoring twice in overtime explains how the Dallas Stars led their best-of-seven series 2-1 against the Colorado Avalanche, despite leading for only 62 seconds during their first three games.
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Don't ever change that overtime rule. Don't try that bastardized 3-on-3 stuff from the regular season, with teams backtracking repeatedly until they eventually, hopefully see a scoring chance.
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Unlike other sports, hockey has just enough offence and the right amount of scoring opportunities to play next-goal-wins.
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Soccer can't; they could play for hours and never break a nil-nil deadlock. It's conversely too easy to score in basketball, so the NBA plays five-minute overtime sessions until someone is ahead at the buzzer. It's not 'sudden-death,' the outdated, hyperbolic phrase that used to describe NHL overtimes.
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Baseball gives each team an opportunity to score a winning run, with MLB putting a ghost runner at second base in extra innings to make it easier. But only during the regular season.
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Please explain how the tie-breaker works in tennis. Golfers play extra holes until someone wins outright, which is the second-best tie-breaking format in professional sports.
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The CFL also gives each team an opportunity for scoring a decisive touchdown, field goal, safety or rouge.
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The NFL? Puh-leez! No pro league has devised worse overtimes than the NFL.
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In the NHL it ain't broke, so don't fix it. These Stanley Cup finals remain way more entertaining than WrestleMania, with much better plot twists. Can John Cena play goal for the Edmonton Oilers? Or maybe he could referee and not give Ottawa Senators forward Ridley Greig a phantom roughing penalty while getting pulverized by Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Anthony Stolarz in a WWE-like showdown.
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There are way too many gambling ads during the telecasts and hearing legendary studio host Ron MacLean recite pregame parlays continues to be tremendously sad, but in-studio analysts Kevin Bieksa, Kelly Hrudey, Luke Gazdic, Elliotte Friedman and Derek Lalonde — a former NHL coach who Bieksa calls 'Newsy' — remain insightful.
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