The Ottawa Senators lost a crucial game in the shootout against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night, and it didn't sit well with starting goaltender Linus Ullmark. It's easy to come to the conclusion that shootouts are terrible for the game when you let in two of three shots and lose a big game, but some might argue that the goaltender has a point. Ullmark decided to speak out against the novelty act post-game, according to Julian McKenzie via X, formerly Twitter.
“I've always hated shootouts,” says Linus Ullmark. “I've been a big advocate of playing 10 minutes instead. And if there's no winner, you just go one point each. You go from there. You're tossing a coin, sometimes, or have a bit of a circus act. Guys have been battling for 65 minutes, really hard, long season. I think there's a better way of deciding who's going to be the winner and who's not.”
There is an argument building that the NHL should switch to continuous three-on-three overtime until someone scores, which, given the talent level in the game, might not take longer than five minutes. The only question would be what the overtime time limit would be and how the game would end if no one scored. It's possible to revert to a tie situation, as the NHL did before the shootout came into effect.
While it's nice to see a game have a conclusive winner or loser instead of a tie, it's equally frustrating to see a team fall out of playoff contention because of a shootout after 65 minutes of hard hockey. If the tie rule were in effect on Thursday night, the Senators wouldn't have lost any ground to a team that they might end up needing to pass to make the postseason.
