Overtime is the most exciting part of NHL hockey. So let’s just look at the week’s overtimes and bypass the slog of first period, second period, third period. Rob McKenzie summarises the extra sessions.
1. The first
The week’s first OT was in Brooklyn on Monday, with Toronto and the Islanders tied 5-5 after regulation.
As usual the extra session was non-stop three-on-three action that the fans loved. Here’s what happened in the first minute alone:
The Islanders win the faceoff and attack; their star John Tavares, with room to manoeuvre, tries to gain an edge with some spin moves near the net; he passes to Nick Leddy who is dashing towards the crease, but the pass is a bit off; Toronto gets the rebound and suddenly has a three-on-one (these rapid turnarounds are a staple of overtime, and the crowd’s buzz rises and dips with each shift); Morgan Reilly has a close shot at the Isles net but Thomas Greiss stops it; on the next faceoff the Isles break out but can’t get a clear chance even after Toronto keeper Frederik Andersen loses his stick; then there’s a turnover and the Leafs are off and running; etc etc.
This went on for three more minutes and change, at which point the Isles had a three-on-one and Brock Nelson scored.
And, exhale.
2. The normal procedure
On Tuesday Buffalo scored 65 seconds into the extra session to cap a comeback from three goals down against San Jose. The winner came, as these often do, after a turnover. Jack Eichel of the Sabres won the puck and raced down the ice on a two-on-one with Evander Kane, who scored and then crashed into the boards.
Overtime is a speed game, which suits young players like Eichel, who is in his second year. But at the same time it is a game where mistakes are deadly, which can make coaches leery of leaning on their youngsters.
3. Mistakes are magnified
Such was the case that same night when Detroit went to OT against Columbus. The Wings forward Dylan Larkin, like Eichel in his second year, did not get any ice time in overtime, even though he is the league’s fastest player (he set a speed record at last year’s All-Star skills competition).
This suggests the coaching staff has doubts about Larkin’s ability to avoid mistakes.
But instead it was a mistake by the refs that sealed the match. Columbus’s Brandon Dubinsky slashed Henrik Zetterberg and broke the Detroit captain’s stick. The refs should have called a penalty but, as in the playoffs, they can be reluctant to call infractions in overtime.
Seconds later, with Zetterberg impaired, Columbus scored.
4. Mistakes (part 2)
And on Wednesday, we saw an example of why the refs are reluctant to send players to the penalty box in OT. It’s because the game then goes from three-on-three to four-on-three, and a four-on-three matchup has a very high chance of scoring -- and therefore of deciding the game.
Chicago was at Minnesota. The Wild had won eight regular-season games in a row over the Hawks, and were six points up on them for the Central Division lead.
Halfway through the extra session the refs flagged Ryan Suter for mugging Marian Hossa along the boards.
The Hawks’ four men on the power play were pretty much all-World -- Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith and Artemi Panarin. Within 40 seconds the Hawks had won as Toews jammed home a rebound. And after it was over, Suter came out of the penalty box and gave the refs a piece of his mind.
5. Mistakes (part 3)
Another facet of overtime is that line changes can be pivotal. Hockey is the rare sport where changes are made on the fly, and if you get your wires crossed in overtime your team might soon be fried.
This happened Thursday in Arizona, where the Coyotes and Montreal were tied 4-4 after regulation. When Max Pacioretty gained possession in the Montreal zone, between the red line and blue line, Phoenix’s Peter Holland elected to go to the bench rather than forecheck.
Holland had had a chance to leave the ice 25 seconds into his shift -- which would have been a short shift -- but instead he stayed out there and was gassed by the time he took a pass at checking Pacioretty, a little over 45 seconds into the shift. By the time Holland’s replacement was on the ice, Montreal was well into the three-on-two on which Alex Galchenyuk would net the winner.
And the crowd went nuts, because apparently everyone in Quebec now resides in Phoenix.
6. Star power
But when overtime is at its best, it’s pretty awesome. The three-on-three format, adopted last season, opens up space and allows stars to be at their most creative; the canvas is less cluttered.
Such was the case Thursday in Toronto. As overtime began the St Louis trio of Vladimir Tarasenko, Jori Lehtera and Kevin Shattenkirk huddled and drew up a play.
And then they executed it. St Louis got the puck off the faceoff; Lehtera and Shattenkirk rushed forward while Tarasenko stayed way back. With the Leafs in defensive mode Lehtera passed back to Tarasenko, who had tons of room to gain speed. At the Toronto blue line he deked outside on Leo Komarov, stickhandled inside past Nazem Kadri, and then, just out of the reach of the last Leaf defender, Morgan Rielly, he lasered it past Andersen off the post. Game over after 20 seconds of OT.
Superstar.
7. ‘Really annoying’
About a third of the time, nobody scores during the five minutes of overtime. So the teams go to a shoot-out, which is fun for the fans but feels a bit random.
For example on Tuesday Calgary beat Pittsburgh in a shoot-out thanks to a Kris Versteeg deke that fooled Matt Murray. Afterwards Murray said, “It’s just really annoying losing in the shoot-out like that. Really annoying.”
The Tampa goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy probably wasn’t too thrilled either after giving up the shoot-out winner against Minnesota on Friday -- a Mikko Koivu deke job that left the Russian keeper on his butt.
One change to improve the shoot-out would be this: after the first three shooters, let a team keep using the same guy over and over. This is what they do in the Olympics. The game should be decided by best against best, not fourth best against fourth best.
8. Burns burnt
Saturday’s schedule had 13 games but only two went to overtime.
One of the OTs was settled by a mistake, though by a veteran rather than a rookie. San Jose’s Brent Burns lost control of the puck near mid-ice, it just seemed to glide off his stick, and Philadelphia’s Wayne Simmonds got it and had a breakaway. The big forward deked the Sharks backup goalie Aaron Dell for his 23rd goal of the season (he has a shot at beating his career high of 31).
“I think [Burns] lost it at the start and then I just inched up on him and luckily it went off my skate and I was away to the races,” Simmonds said.
The other OT, Pittsburgh at Arizona, was an individual effort of the sort that three-on-three hockey allows. The Coyote defender Connor Brown did an end-to-end rush, Bobby Orr-style, and his shot from just inside the blueline beat the Penguins’ Marc-Andre Fleury. (Fleury probably should have stopped it, and showed his frustration with himself: he raised his stick in the air as if to windmill it against the ice, then thought better of it.)
Anyhow it was Brown’s first goal in 50 games, and his teammates all rushed off the bench to congratulate him.
Open up the ice, open up the possibilities.
9. Overview
For the season through Sunday, 23 per cent of all games went to overtime.
The NY Rangers have needed extra time the fewest times, six. The Wings and Florida Panthers have needed it the most, 19.
Some teams show a discrepancy between how they do in the five-minute overtime and how they do if a shoot-out is required. Los Angeles is 10-1 in overtime but 1-3 in shoot-outss. Detroit is 3-10 in the overtime but 6-0 in shoot-outs.
10. In summation
If the play-offs started today ... Washington, who won two games this week with the UAE hockey player Fatima Al Ali in attendance, have a league-leading 84 points and would face Toronto. The east's other matchups would be Montreal-NY Rangers, Columbus-Pittsburgh and Ottawa-Boston (the Bruins have won three straight since firing their coach of 10 years, Claude Julien, and promoting his assistant Bruce Cassidy). Out would it would be Minnesota-LA, San Jose-Nashville, Chicago-St Louis and Anaheim-Edmonton.
Standouts: Connor McDavid's 61 points put him one ahead of Sidney Crosby and Nicklas Backstrom; Crosby has the most goals, 30; Washington's Brooks Orpik is the new plus-minus leader at +32; the Winnipeg workhorse Dustin Byfuglien remains the ice-time pace-setter at 27:26 per game; Antoine Roussel sustains his stranglehold on penalty minutes at 111; Jimmy Howard's goals-against average of 1.96 is untopped; Peter Budaj and Braden Holtby are tied for most shutouts at 7.
Standard-bearer: 300 career points is not massive but in the case of Tyler Bozak, who reached the mark with an assist in Toronto's overtime loss on Monday, it is worth saluting. Bozak is in his eighth NHL season, all as a Leaf. This has been an awful period for the team and his 300 points signify not excellence but endurance, which for most of us in life is a more realistic objective.
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