Some NHL Playoff Thoughts
While watching Vancouver’s thrilling quadruple overtime victory over the Stars, it suddenly hit me how much teams change their play in overtime. They take shots at every single opportunity and throw the puck on net as much as possible. Teams just need one more goal and so they put the puck on net knowing anything can happen. Guys aren’t worried about scoring pretty goals or getting their teammates involved. They just want to put the puck in the net and win the game. One would assume that in the sudden death overtime of a playoff game, desperation unconsciously forces teams to employ the optimal goal scoring strategy–that would mean that the best way to score goals, whether it’s in overtime of the playoffs or regulation of the regular season, is to shoot the puck as much as possible.
So the question is why don’t teams play like this all the time? In overtime teams shoot as much as possible because they desperately need a goal and that’s the best way to score. However, once the next game starts both teams go back to patiently passing it around and waiting for the perfect shot. Once it’s no longer overtime, they abandon the optimal strategy of shooting as much as possible. If one explains this by saying that shooting at every opportunity isn’t the optimal goal scoring strategy, then that brings up the question of why teams do it in overtime. At some point, likely in regulation or possibly in overtime, teams abandon the optimal goal scoring strategy. It doesn’t make sense and it’s not because of the fatigue factor in overtime. The overtime behavior of all teams suggest that they could drastically increase their chances of postseason success simply by putting the puck on net as much as possible at all points of the game. It may not be pretty or fun, but it’s the best strategy and it doesn’t make sense that teams only resort to it in overtime.
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