The shootout sucks.
Its sucked forever and it sucked again to see a great game between Canada and the U.S. in the women’s hockey final come down to the skills competition, rather than leave it up to the team on the ice.
Yes, U.S. was the better team in overtime with far more chances to end it, but I’d rather see that than Shannon Szabados and Meghan Agosta, two great veterans of the team, be isolated to bear the brunt of the loss.
But there was a scary thought that even though Gary Bettman didn’t send NHLers to the Olympics, he’ll somehow see the finish to this game think this is a good idea in the NHL playoffs.
No thanks.
There are far better ways around this but it’s hopeless to think the IIHF will ever change after this process was adopted to solve playoff games when they changed formats in 1992.
But there is no doubt that Canada/U.S. women’s hockey at the Olympics is as dramatic as any hockey game anywhere. It’s their Stanley Cup. And it shows.
Maybe a best of three is in order next time, with no shootouts.