Quote:
Originally Posted by Erick Estrada
Yeah 7 minutes of OT followed by a SO would be way too long especially if the SO goes more than three shooters per team.
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That depends on how many more games would end in those extra two minutes. If enough games end in the sixth and seventh minutes of OT, the average length of all extra time games would be reduced.
In March, the AHL put out this infographic about the new OT rules (I can't find an updated one for the whole season):
In that time, 224 games went to OT. 120 of those games (53.57%) ended in the first five minutes of OT. Of the remaining 104, 51 (49.04%) ended in the next two minutes of OT. Extending OT by two minutes reduced the number of shootouts by almost half. If that held true long term, playing 7 minutes of OT should be an easy decision for the league and PA.
We'll see next season if the effectiveness of 3-on-3 OT in the AHL was actually because of the 3-on-3 or if it was just a by-product of extending the OT by two minutes. My guess is that it'll be a little of both.