Is the NHL looking to adopt a 3-on-3 overtime format?

NHL-Overtime-FormatHockey, like most sports with long and colorful histories, has its share of purists. They don’t like the game tinkered with, even when it’s done with the best of intentions. Case in point — we all cringe at the memory of the Fox network’s glowing puck experiment. (Damn, it was hard just typing that.)

But there’s a new idea rumored to be kicking around the NHL offices that — to these ears, at least — doesn’t sound half bad: 3-on-3 overtime play. The goal is to reduce the number of games going to a shootout after 4-on-4 overtime fails to resolve the outcome. We say bring it on – at the very least, it would make for a wild exchange of odd-man rushes, without the jerky stop/start rhythm of a formal skills competition (the shootout). Read more.