You may hate it (as some say they do), love it (as many more seem to), or have no opinion (it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to find anyone camped there)… but one thing appears to be certain.<\/p>\n
The shootout is likely to be with us for a while.<\/p>\n
Brought in this year by both the WCHA and Hockey East, the device is being used to provide a final outcome to league contests that are still knotted up after overtime.<\/p>\n
Purists often argue that settling a result via the penalty shot is something odious. That argument was steamrolled by the NHL when it put in the shootout after the end of the lockout in 2005.<\/p>\n
Guess what. They ain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t backtracking on that one.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I played a couple years in minor league hockey,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said North Dakota coach Brian Idalski, whose team lost the only shootout it has seen thus far, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153and we had it. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not opposed to it (at all). It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a two-fold thing. As an emerging sport, we have to take the fans into consideration. I was all for it. I know that there are a lot of people who are against it. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nice to leave the rink and having an outcome. So I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m fine with that. Hopefully it continues to stay in, at least during the regular season.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153That being said, it stinks when you lose one.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
To date, eight contests (four in each league) have gone to a shootout.<\/p>\n
New Hampshire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Sam Faber took the first-ever shootout attempt in a women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s collegiate game (at least one that counted), back on Oct. 8 against Boston College goalie Molly Schaus.<\/p>\n
She missed.<\/p>\n
Then again, so did the next seven attemptees.<\/p>\n
She said the best move one can make in that situation is inside one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s head.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s definitely mental,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I was going first. I played with Molly (at the U.S. National camp) so she knows what I do. She knows my moves, and exactly what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m doing. I was tossing it around ‘should I do it? Does she think I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not going to do it?’ I was thinking way too much. I should have just gone in, see what she would give me, and done it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Goaltenders, many of whom are a little off center anyway, seem less unnerved by the exercise than are the shooters themselves. Or at least that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how UNH\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Kayley Herman sees it. And she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been on the losing end of two of them (after winning the first).<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Bring it on,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You just kind of stay in the moment. You can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get too high or too low. If you get scored on or make a big save.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
You can count Boston College coach Katie King among the shootout\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s proponents, even though her Eagles have lost their only one. <\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We do a shootout once a week, probably. It does make it fun. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s kind of like the playoffs. It think people up in the stands are like, ‘(hey) this is fun.’ That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Both Hockey East and the WCHA factor the shootout into the standings differently than do the men’s professional leagues. The losing team gets a point only if they survive the overtime to get to the shootout.<\/p>\n
So with every point likely to make a difference in the final league standings, coaches are now starting to prepare their teams a little more studiously for the chance to grab a little something extra.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153As coaches, we start to practice it more,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Idalski. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Show some video and teach it more. I think it will continue to improve. We haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t spent a lot of time on it, but now it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another element we have to coach. Certain kids seem to have a knack for that.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Boston Universiy coach Brian Durocher (1-0 in official shootouts) echoed that thought, with one caveat. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to see it extended to all four leagues, and in non-conference games, too. <\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I like the shootout,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. “(But) my big thing is that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to have everybody doing it. So that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not confusing the fans. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be happy to avoid them, and win in regulation if we could.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
You may hate it (as some say they do), love it (as many more seem to), or have no opinion (it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to find anyone camped there)… but one thing appears to be certain. The shootout is likely to be with us for a while. Brought in this year by both the WCHA and Hockey […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":140328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n