ITS ABOUT (OVER)TIME

The NHL has tied itself in knots in an effort to increase scoring and halt a trend toward regular-season ties.

After seeing more than a fifth of regular-season games go to overtime in each of the last three seasons and only 28.1% of those games produce winners, NHL governors radically changed the overtime format. When the score is tied after 60 minutes, each team will get one point in the standings. The teams will then play a sudden-death overtime of no more than five minutes, with each team limited to four skaters plus a goaltender. If a team scores, it will get an extra point in the standings.

The rule--which will not apply during the playoffs--has many wrinkles. Most notable is if a team pulls its goalie in overtime and loses, it will forfeit the point it was awarded at the end of regulation time unless the goalie was pulled because of a delayed penalty pending against the opposing team. Also, if a penalty creates a five-on-four situation as the third period ends, overtime will begin with the teams playing four on three. If a team gets two penalties in overtime, it will have three skaters but the other team will be allowed to send out five.

Although the changes are a significant departure from what the NHL has done since 1983-84, when it introduced a five-minute, sudden-death overtime period during the regular season, they’re not as extreme as resorting to a shootout, the dramatic but controversial tie-breaking procedure used in the Olympic medal rounds.

“It’s not that gimmicky,” Mighty Duck left wing Paul Kariya said of playing four on four in overtime. “The bottom line is, we’re in the entertainment business. If we have to take somebody off the ice to keep people in the seats, so be it.

“The shootout is exciting, but it’s a little more of a gimmick. Penalty shots are exciting plays, but you wouldn’t want to decide games with them.”

Proponents of the change theorize that having fewer players on the ice will create more space and give skill players freedom to display their talents. That will make games more exciting and increase scoring, which fell to an average of 5.26 last season. Backers also believe that with an extra point to be gained, teams have an incentive to use their top scorers in overtime instead of sitting back to protect that precious point.

“I’m one of the guys who was so much for it, I was pushing for three on three,” said Pierre Lacroix, general manager of the Colorado Avalanche. “I’ve been involved in hockey for 30 years and I don’t think there’s anything more exciting than three on three. Four on four is a good step. The fact you’re getting a point out of overtime won’t change any past strategy. When the game was close, in the last five minutes everybody played close-checking. That won’t change in the last four, five minutes of regulation.

“We’re going to have skill and we’re going to have room on the ice. Even though I’m very conservative by nature and I’m not too keen on major changes, I was for this one.”

Approval, however, was not unanimous. Dave Taylor, the Kings’ general manager, said he opposed it, “just on tradition. A tie has been part of our game for a long time.”

San Jose General Manager Dean Lombardi dislikes the changes and questions the motivation of another ploy to increase scoring.

“Do we need it? I don’t know. But I think it’s a direct response to Game 6 of Buffalo-Dallas,” Lombardi said, referring to the Stars’ 2-1, triple-overtime victory in the Stanley Cup clincher last June. “For the hockey purist, that was a tremendous hockey game. But you’ve got to know the game to appreciate it.

“We’re trying to cater to a different audience and an audience that hasn’t grown up with hockey. They don’t understand that Dallas-Buffalo Game 6 was a great game. The goal is to market the game.”

League officials say they hope to enliven the game without cheapening it and cite surveys in which fans advocated a change in the overtime procedure to add excitement. During an experiment with the four-on-four overtime format in the American Hockey League last season, 27 of 44 games that went to overtime--61.4%--were decided in overtime. In the 243 games before the use of four-on-four play, 33% of games were decided in overtime.

The AHL began awarding both teams a point for a tie at the end of regulation time in 1995-96. In its first season, 12% more games were decided in overtime than under the old rules.

“I can tell you that our officials who had worked this system in the AHL last year when it was being experimented with were all extremely complimentary, relative to the flow of the game,” said Bryan Lewis, the NHL’s director of officiating. “They said it wasn’t uncommon to have continuous action for three minutes in overtime.”

Colin Campbell, the league’s director of hockey operations and a former coach of the New York Rangers, anticipates that teams will emphasize offense to get that second point.

“I know for myself, from my experience coaching, that if you got the point, if you were at the end of the game, regardless of how well you played or how long you hung on, you were worried you were going to lose that point in overtime,” he said. “Now that we have the four on four in place in overtime, I think it will open it up.

“You see in a game now four on four, the benches are more alert, the teams are more alert. There’s more ice to work with. Defensemen are ready to jump up and make it a three on two. . . . It’s going to be interesting to see what kind of strategy is [used]. Will some teams even try three forwards and one defenseman?”

The Avalanche went one better, using forwards Claude Lemieux, Adam Deadmarsh, Chris Drury and Milan Hejduk during a four-on-three advantage in overtime of an exhibition game against the Penguins.

“I like it, but I think it’s going to favor teams with star players,” San Jose Coach Darryl Sutter said of the four-on-four format. “Like Anaheim getting a four on four in overtime--they get to play Kariya and [Teemu] Selanne, and that’s pretty scary.”

Surprisingly, the Ducks were among the NHL’s worst teams last season while playing four on four, scoring two goals and allowing eight.

“A lot of it is mentality, and if you’re out there just trying to score goals you might turn the puck over and the game is over,” Duck Coach Craig Hartsburg said. “Not that you’re not going to try to create things, but you have to be smart. More goals are scored by somebody making a mistake and the other team capitalizing than somebody making a brilliant play.”

Duck goalie Guy Hebert expects teams to be aggressive.

“A point is really important for teams, especially on the road, and you can tell your goalie, ‘Hey, we’re going to be taking chances. Just do your best,’ ” he said. “If you lose, you’re not going to lose everything. I think it will increase the excitement in that five minutes. It will be nerve-racking for goaltenders, though, because one mental lapse, and you skate off a loser.”

Said Hartsburg: “When you’re playing within your own conference and your own division, you’re going to probably still have the approach, ‘Let’s be cautious, let’s be smart. We don’t want to give up a point and we’ll take another if they make a mistake.’ When you play the other [conference], it may be different. I won’t say it will open up, but you do less damage if you lose.”

The big winner, Lacroix said, will be the game itself.

“As a hockey guy, you’re involved with your team and you come out on a trip with two ties and you say, ‘It wasn’t too bad.’ But the pure fan wasn’t getting all that excitement,” he said. “Now, you protect your point and you give a little bit of excitement for the fans. Now, they know they won’t have their candy if they leave early, so they’re going to stay. . . .

“The combination of the point structure and four on four is going to be good for hockey and for the real fan.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

The New Overtime Rule--at Length

Complete text of the new rule for regular-season overtime:

During league games, if at the end of the three regular 20-minute periods the score shall be tied, each team shall be awarded one point in the league standings.

The teams will then play an additional overtime period of not more than five minutes, with the team scoring first declared the winner and being awarded an additional point. The overtime period shall be played with each team at a numerical strength of four skaters and one goalkeeper. Additional penalties to be assessed consistent with the rules in regulation time.

Note 1--If a team is penalized in overtime, teams play four on three.

Note 2--In overtime, if a team is penalized such that a two-man advantage is called for, then the offending team will remain at three skaters while the non-offending team will be permitted a fifth skater.

Note 3--At the first stoppage of play after the two-man advantage is no longer in effect, the numerical strength of the team will revert back to either a four-on-four or a four-on-three situation, as appropriate.

Note 4--If there is a manpower advantage situation which carries over from regulation time to overtime, the above criteria will be applied at the start of overtime. Accordingly, if at the end of regulation time the teams are five on four, overtime begins at four on three.

Note 5--A team shall be allowed to pull its goalkeeper in favor of an additional skater in the overtime period. However, should that team lose the game during the time in which the goalkeeper has been removed, it would forfeit the automatic point gained in the tie at the end of regulation play, except if the goalkeeper has been removed at the call of a delayed penalty against the other team.

Note 6--The overtime period will be commenced immediately following a two-minute rest period during which the players will remain on the ice. The teams will not change ends for the overtime period.

Note 7--When the regulation ends with an on-ice manpower strength of five on three, teams will commence the overtime with a strength of five on three. With the expiration of penalties, due to continuous action, player strength may get to five on five or five on four. At the first stoppage of play following, player strength must be adjusted to four on four or four on three.

Note 8--If at the end of regulation time teams are three on three, overtime starts three on three. Once player strength reaches a five on four or five on five, at the next stoppage player strength is adjusted to four on three or four on four, as appropriate.

Note 9--If at the end of regulation time teams are four on four with a player or players in the box serving non-coincidental penalties, overtime starts four on four and players exit the penalty box as normal to five on four or five on five. At first stoppage of play, teams are adjusted to four on three or four on four, as appropriate.

4-on-4 Scoring in 1998-99

NHL teams’ scoring during four-on-four situations 1998-99 regular season:

*--*

Goals Goals Team for Against Diff. Dallas 7 2 +5 Detroit 6 1 +5 New Jersey 6 1 +5 San Jose 9 5 +4 Boston 5 2 +3 Washington 5 2 +3 Calgary 8 6 +2 Edmonton 6 4 +2 Florida 6 4 +2 Ottawa 6 4 +2 Colorado 4 2 +2 Nashville 4 2 +2 Pittsburgh 2 1 +1 Carolina 3 3 Even Toronto 6 7 -1 N.Y. Islanders 3 4 -1 Philadelphia 3 4 -1 Tampa Bay 2 3 -1 Vancouver 5 7 -2 Chicago 4 6 -2 N.Y. Rangers 5 8 -3 Kings 1 4 -3 Buffalo 3 7 -4 Phoenix 2 6 -4 St. Louis 2 6 -4 Montreal 2 8 -6 Mighty Ducks 2 8 -6

*--*