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A Changing of Style
Just a year ago, the National Hockey League adopted a new way to play overtime. They tossed away the old format of five on five hockey, and created four on four hockey just for overtime. This allowed players to play a more open style of play, that which emulates the European method.
The new design only permitted the finesse players on the ice during the five minutes of play. This was because “Coaches did not want the goons on the ice to make an unintelligent penalty to cause the team to be a man short therefore making the game a three on four situation” (CNNSI.COM).
Players like Pittsburgh’s Jaromir Jagr, enjoy the concept of four on four overtime. He actually insisted that the whole game become four on four. “It would be a great change, overtime was so exciting last year so imagine the whole game like that” (ESPN MAGAZINE).
Ever since the inception of four on four overtime, more games ended with a team winning instead of mostly tie games. This allowed fans to really brag about a win unlike the situation where both teams tie each other. Fan approval has been shown, ESPN’s “National Hockey Night” had a ratings boost of nine percent last year and they credit the new overtime format for the jump. “This obviously shows that fans would approve of the ideas of playing a full four on four game” (ESPN MAGAZINE).
Many sports should follow the way of the N.H.L. For example, fans are always complaining about the length of baseball games. Maybe the MLB should try to revise a way to make it quicker. This could possibly give them an even bigger amount of ratings than that of what it already gets. Even the NBA sort of followed the NHL. They made rule changes for post players, making them get rid of the ball in quicker time. Therefore causing more scoring to be done in games.
Although many critics put down the idea of four on four as being a lame way to get ratings, they ended up shutting up. Now they are praising the NHL. The game is now played the way it should be and was always envisioned as. It is not called “the fastest game in the world” for nothing; overtime proves that. Now if the league would get a Canadian commissioner, but that is a different story.
Bibliography
Adelson, Eric. “Game Face.” ESPN Magazine 16 Oct. 2000.
Assael, Shaun. “Farm Fresh.” ESPN Magazine 16 Oct. 2000.
Word Count: 403
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