> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.pensionplanpuppets.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Wednesday’s FTB: Rule change - URL: https://www.pensionplanpuppets.com/wednesday-ftb-sports-rule-change-shootout-nhl-spezza-mcdavid-matthews-shanahan-lethbridge-links-news/ - Published: 2020-04-22T10:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2020-04-22T10:00:00.000Z - Description: If you could change one rule in the NHL, what would it be? - Author: taaeeve - Tags: From The Branches, #chorus, #Import 2023-04-05 10:50 On Monday the official Twitter Sports account posed this question to the internet: if you could propose a rule change in your favourite sport, what would it be? It’s a great question, and provoked a lot of fun answers ranging from completely improbable... > Here's one for the NHL. This is radical, but bear with me. > > When a team commits a penalty infraction, the officials send them to the box for the appropriate amount of time regardless of score or the previous amount of penalties that team had taken. [https://t.co/q80kQH1KiV](https://t.co/q80kQH1KiV?ref=pensionplanpuppets.com) > > — Jesse Marshall (@jmarshfof) [April 21, 2020](https://twitter.com/jmarshfof/status/1252594002454609926?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=pensionplanpuppets.com) ...to intriguing... > goalie gets a brick, its up to them what they do with it [https://t.co/ihsk3xkxUH](https://t.co/ihsk3xkxUH?ref=pensionplanpuppets.com) > > — crosscheck carlos (@francouz666) [April 21, 2020](https://twitter.com/francouz666/status/1252448167875850246?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=pensionplanpuppets.com) ...to desperately needed for the success of the sport. > hockey gloves should be on a string like little kids' gloves so when they drop them they just dangle [https://t.co/A4W4vZ5ZbT](https://t.co/A4W4vZ5ZbT?ref=pensionplanpuppets.com) > > — daisy (@delayedcall) [April 20, 2020](https://twitter.com/delayedcall/status/1252368843915198465?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=pensionplanpuppets.com) I am, of course, going to shamelessly steal that question to once again talk about how much the shootout sucks. Also, I can’t really remember any of the other rules of hockey right now, and at this point have only the vaguest memories of the sport as a whole (there’s... sticks, right? and maybe knives? ice??) Anyways. The shootout is bad. I think that’s fairly universally agreed upon – feel free to yell at me in the comments section if not – and yet there it remains in the NHL rule book, an unceremonious anvil falling on the adrenaline rush of 3-on-3 overtime, leaving the goalie to drag the limp body of many a game over the finish line. It’s boring, it’s not actually hockey, and [occasional moments of brilliance](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZwDcXKVytE&ref=pensionplanpuppets.com) don’t quite make up for how much of a sad, limp ending it slaps on to what very well might have been an otherwise amazing hockey game. I’m not saying there’s no place for it at all though. While I do think that if you let 3-on-3 go on for an undetermined amount of time, the game will always eventually end with someone scoring a goal, arguably there is always the off-chance that both goalies might decide to stand on their heads and/or both teams might decide that trying to score goals is overrated. Or, maybe more realistically, a certain union might take umbrage with their members being required to play for an unending and indeterminate amount of time. Which, of course, brings us to my proposed solution: ten minutes of 3-on-3 overtime, which is *then* followed by the shootout, because honestly any team that can’t score a goal with ten minutes of 3-on-3 deserves the shootout. If, however, extending 3-on-3 is truly impossible, I do have another, acceptable alternative that just involves a minor tweak to the set up of the shootout itself: the goalies take the shots in the shootout and a rotation of skaters try and stop them from scoring. I’m ready for the rule change when you are, National Hockey League. ## On to the links! Looking forward to next season, we take a stab at what the Marlies might look like: --- #### Related [Projecting the Marlies roster next season](https://www.pensionplanpuppets.com/projecting-the-toronto-marlies-roster-next-season/) --- Jason Spezza talks the aging curve and the potential of returning as a Leafs next season: --- #### Related [Leafs’ Spezza fights to flatten aging curve as NHL’s pause drags on](https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/leafs-spezza-fights-flatten-aging-curve-nhls-pause-drags/?ref=pensionplanpuppets.com) --- Over on the Athletic, Dom Luszczyszyn has put together a similarity score generator in pursuit of identifying the most unique player in the league: --- #### Related [By the numbers: Finding the NHL's most unique players](https://theathletic.com/1761077/2020/04/21/by-the-numbers-finding-the-nhls-most-unique-players/?ref=pensionplanpuppets.com) --- Brendan Shanahan appeared on Overdrive to talk about the pause in the season as well as his legacy and time in the league: --- #### Related [Shanahan shares if he’d ever want to be part of a documentary like Jordan](https://www.tsn.ca/nhl/video/shanahan-shares-if-he-d-ever-want-to-be-part-of-a-documentary-like-jordan~1943161?ref=pensionplanpuppets.com) --- The University of Lethbridge has shut down both its men’s and women’s hockey teams: --- #### Related [Lethbridge axes men’s and women’s hockey teams, citing budget cuts](https://www.sportsnet.ca/usports/lethbridge-axes-mens-womens-hockey-teams-citing-budget-cuts/?ref=pensionplanpuppets.com) --- And that’s all for now! Happy Wednesday everyone! ### What would you like the NHL to get rid of the most? | Faceoffs | 3 | | ----------------------- | -- | | Offsides | 4 | | Delay of game penalties | 6 | | The shootout | 35 | | The Bruins | 68 | | Hard salary cap | 41 | | Other | 5 |