No Way to Win (or Lose)

I will admit that I went to bed after the second period of last night's Team USA-Czech Republic men's Olympic Hockey game because 9:10 pm start times don't go well with 2:45 am wake up calls for work.  And it is a good thing I did, because if I had stayed up until the end of the game I would have had no sleep while ranting and raving about how this contest was decided.

If you didn't stay up either, the US lost to the Czechs--and were eliminated from medal contention--in an overtime shootout.  As a fan of "real hockey" I DETEST the shootout more than anything else in sports.  An elimination playoff game that featured great competition for three full periods and a ten minute overtime gets decided by trick shots.

I will never understand why the powers-that-be think the best way to break ties is to completely abandon the normal gameplay and go to a completely different way of playing just because you don't want it to "go on too long".  The NHL uses the shootout during its regular season--after playing an equally-stupid, five-minute, 3-on-3 overtime period.  But that's for one of 82-games and really doesn't mean that much in the grand scheme of things.  But in the Playoffs--where every game has greatly-magnified meaning--the teams play 5-on-5 "regular" sudden death hockey for as long as it takes to get a game-winning goal. 

And that has produced some of the most epic hockey games in the sport's history.  Three and four overtime contests with multiple close calls and dramatic game winners that remain part of the sports lore.  Unlike the three goals that might be scored in a shootout by one team edging out the two goals scored by the other.

You don't see tie games in Olympic Basketball decided by a free-throw shooting contest.  And when they had baseball and softball in the Olympics, those extra innings games weren't decided by Home Run Derby.  The integrity of those sports is preserved all the way to the conclusion.

I fear that based on the competitive balance between the two teams that tonight's Women's Hockey gold medal game between Team USA and Canada will also likely end up in a shootout--with neither side feeling like they really "earned" that win.  So let them play until there is a winner.  And leave the "shootout" for the losers over on the soccer pitch.