USHL-NHL should adopt 3-on-3 overtime

The United States Hockey League announced through its website on Tuesday it will introduce a new 3-3 version of regular season overtime for the upcoming season.

The overtime will be extended to seven minutes in length and teams will start out playing 4-on-4. With 4:00 or less remaining the game will convert to 3-on-3 at the first stoppage. If the game remains even at the end of the seven minute stretch, teams will proceed to a three player (or more) shootout to settle the game.

The league’s press release says the 3-on-3 system was tested at various points over the past two seasons. It found that while 39 percent of games were decided during 4-on-4 overtime, that number nearly doubled to 71 percent decided with the 3-on-3 version.

Meanwhile, the NHL General Managers, meeting in Las Vegas on the eve of the NHL Awards Ceremony suggested their own version of the 3-on-3 change that will see 4-on-4 removed and simply changed by five minutes of 3-on-3. With the best players in the world given that much ice time for five full minutes, it would seem shootouts will be a rarity in the NHL from this point forward.

The General Managers’ recommendation would still need to be passed by the owners. It’s hard to imagine the owners denying it, but they could tweak it to something more like the USHL’s version or make other changes to it.

But it’s highly likely the NHL, who tested the system in the American Hockey League this past season will adapt some version of this rule change for in time for the regular season in October.