Waiting To See Who Wins, No Matter How Long It Takes

We're about a week after the marathon game between the Dallas Stars and the San Jose Sharks and it's no surprise there's talk of changing the overtime format for the playoffs. There's talk of 4-on-4 through to making the shoot-out extend into the post-season, so these games don't go so long.

I stayed up to watch that game last Sunday and at no point did I think it should have played out any other way. I don't think the fans in Dallas cared either. On TV, it looked like half the fans in the arena began to stand and watch the game mid way through the third period. Many of the seats were still full until the 3rd OT period when a few (and I mean few) gaps in the crowd could be seen. They were rewarded for this when Dallas scored to end the game and advance to the Western Conference Final.

I think it's fine the way it is. Yes I was tired, like many of the fans in Dallas were. But there was no way I was turning off that TV, even though I didn't really have anything riding on the outcome. Some things are worth the wait.

It's intense and the embodiment of the sudden death goal. The more OT time that passes, the game settles into that hypnotic fluidity of that awkward state of playing it safe and taking the chance that could end the game. There are interludes of those flashes of speed or the lead pass which get the heart racing. I comes down to that one mistake and, in the Dallas/San Jose game, which goaltender was better. Which team had the determination to stick it out a few moments or that one play more than the other team

It doesn't get much better than that for the devoted hockey fan. Why would you want to change something to make the game more exciting when it's already absolutely edge-of-the-seat entertaining?