Two things.
1. Someone said they aren't seeing as many games on ESPN and they are being farmed out to OLN. That is not the case. ESPN no longer has the contract for hockey this year, OLN does. They took over as the broadcaster in place of ESPN. ESPN is out of the hockey business.
2. As far as OT and shootouts go. I like shootouts for two reasons. First, it is better then ending in a tie, no sporting event should do that. And second, it is not realistic to play OT until someone scores. Games take long enough sometimes during the playoffs with that format. You can't do a whole regular season of that. Only other option I can see is 5 minutes of 5 on 5, 5 min of 4 on 4, and on down until one on one if you have to, until someone scores. I'll take shootout over that though.
My one problem with overtime now...there should be no more 1 point for a tie at the end of regulation. The point of that had been to keep teams from playing safe in OT. Since they already had their 1pt, they could go for it. There is no reason for that bonus anymore. It should be all or nothing. No other sport gives partial credit for getting to OT, even if you lose.
