NHL general managers discuss, endorse OT format at meetings

MANALAPAN, Fla. -- Each time NHL general managers gather for their annual three-day meeting in March, they receive a report on statistical trends.

The most interesting nugget Monday?

The NHL is on track to have 70 percent of extra-time games end in overtime this season, which would be a record.

That's important, because some GMs have expressed concern about 3-on-3 OT -- too much regrouping, not enough attacking.

A small group of GMs discussed it at a breakout session Monday and will report to the full group of GMs on Tuesday.

In the end, the feeling is that the League should leave it alone. Changes could lead to unintended consequences and be self-defeating, and the format is doing what it was designed to do: reduce shootouts.

"I think it's working," said New York Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello, whose team has played 18 OT games, tied with the Boston Bruins for the most in the NHL. "I don't think there's any need to make changes. I think if the regroups were causing it to go into a shootout, then you'd have to."

NHL overtime has been evolving for four decades as the League has tried to make its most competitive games more exciting and satisfying. It introduced five-minute, 5-on-5 sudden-death OT for the 1983-84 regular season, but eventually the feeling was that too many games were still ending in ties.

The League went to 4-on-4 OT in 1999-2000 and began awarding a point to teams that lost in OT. Eventually, once again, the feeling was that too many games were still ending in ties.

The shootout was introduced in 2005-06 as part of a comprehensive package of rule changes coming out of the 2004-05 lockout, but eventually the feeling was that too many games were ending in shootouts.

And so, the NHL went to 3-on-3 OT in 2015-16.

At first, it was nonstop action, but overtime at some point became more about possession. Players realized that a save or missed shot often was essentially a turnover, leading to an odd-man rush the other way, so they began playing keep-away, waiting more patiently to take their best shot.

"I can tell you for sure no coaches said, 'Regroup,'" said Colin Campbell, NHL senior executive vice president of hockey operations. "The players did it on their own. 'We don't like this. We're regrouping.'"

The general managers discussed the issue at their annual one-day meeting in November, which helps set the agenda for this meeting.

"I think everybody wants to see more track meets," New Jersey Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald said. "It's more exciting."

OK, but how do you get more track meets? How do you do it without generating more stoppages, interrupting the action you're trying to encourage?

Do you prohibit the puck from going back over the red line once it has crossed it?

"All of a sudden, now I've got the puck at center ice, and you come and poke it," Dallas Stars GM Jim Nill said. "Did it go over the line? Did it not go over the line? Do we have a video replay on that? It just opens up a can of worms."

Do you make a team shoot the puck in a certain amount of time?

"Now we're going to have another clock?" Nill said. "It's not worth it."

And how would that work, anyway? Does the clock start once a team has possession? Once it has possession within the red line? The blue line? (Let's not even get into how you define possession in this context.) Does the clock reset with a shot on goal? A shot attempt?

The ECHL uses a seven-minute OT, and the teams don't change ends. Do you adopt one or both of those ideas?

Or do you appreciate what you have already?

"Overall, the games are exciting in overtimes," said Nill, whose team has eight OT wins, tied with the Detroit Red Wings for most in the NHL. "Yes, there's going to be a few instances where teams control the puck a lot, but there's a little bit of suspense with that too.

"You know they're going to do something eventually, and everybody's kind of waiting. Teams get tired. It just takes just a bad pass, a fumbled play, a bounce, a bad shot that misses the net, and game on."

Often, when the players regroup, they wind up for a burst of action.

"They go slow for 90 percent, then, boom, they're gone," Campbell said. "In overtime, it's great. Once that one team makes that rush, it's 2-on-1, 3-on-1, 2-on-0, back and forth."

Bottom line: In 1997-98, 25 percent of extra-time games ended in OT. In 2014-15, the number was 44 percent. Now the number has gone from 65 percent in 2021-22 to 69 percent in 2022-23, and it's on track for 70 percent this season.

Again, that would be a record.

"We've looked at it, and we've looked at the percentage, and it hasn't been a problem, we think," Campbell said. "And we think it's exciting.

"But we check. We try to stay on top of it. We don't want to get to where we were before '04-05."