Connor McDavid publicly calls for an NHL rule change that would make both teams and fans happy
When you look at the NHL's top players, at least from a pure offensive perspective, one name stands out above all the others and rightfully so. Connor McDavid is the league's top player. He may be and likely is the best pro hockey player on the planet currently. There's just no stopping him from imposing his will on his opponents on a nightly basis. His 82 points through 44 games are the most in the NHL by nearly a 20-point margin. He's on pace for over 150 points. He's an absolute unicorn.
McDavid is often very soft-spoken and doesn't really speak his mind about the current state of the game unless something is truly wrong. Well, McDavid's comments on Friday are certainly causing a bit of a stir and hopefully it will result in a bit of a change to the way the game is played.
McDavid said what we were all thinking on Friday, commenting on how games are being decided, with a brief stretch of 3-on-3 being played after 60 minutes, followed by a shootout. McDavid would like to see the shootout done away with and he believes that the way to do that is to simply extend 3-on-3 hockey an additional 5 minutes to a 10-minute period.
The vast majority of games that make it to the 3-on-3 overtime end right there, so it's not as though the NHL would be making some sort of huge concession by choosing to extend the 3-on-3 period to 10 minutes. The games would still be plenty exciting for the fans, but it wouldn't leave the teams with a sick feeling in their stomach losing in a shootout, which isn't even real hockey to begin with. At least during 3-on-3 play, goaltenders still have the support of their team. When games get to the shootout, however, it's hard to deny that the player has all of the advantage, getting to dangle in, unimpeded, while the goaltender is limited in terms of options and even movement.
For a player of McDavid's stature to have aired this concern so publicly, maybe the league will listen and put this on the agenda at the first set of GMs meetings this summer.
| POLL | ||
JANVIER 14 | 932 ANSWERS Connor McDavid publicly calls for an NHL rule change that would make both teams and fans happy Do you agree with Connor McDavid that 3-on-3 overtime should be doubled in length to all but eliminate shootouts? | ||
| Yes | 844 | 90.6 % |
| No | 54 | 5.8 % |
| Don't care | 34 | 3.6 % |
| List of polls | ||
