We’re 34 games into the 2005/2006 NHL season and the twine’s really poppin’. If you’ve been watching (or gambling) pretty hard you may have noticed another trend livening up the Canadian-ballet: overtime. Through 30-34 games we’ve seen 98 overtime losses. That means, essentially, that we’ve seen 98 overtime games. It’s not like that average old days when you could all go home with stars on your win-loss column. Someone’s got to lose.

I went back and took a look at the ante-Lockout (pre-Lockout, for all you non-Latin fans) and found an interesting stat. In ‘03/’04 there were 145 overtime losses notched in the standings. We’ve got 30 teams playing 82 games each, for a total of 1230 games a year (you’ve got to divide by 2. A team can’t play itself). That’s an average of 1 OTL every 8 or so games. That number’s been cut in half this year!

Through approximately 450 games we’ve got, like I said, 98 OTL. That translates to about 275 OTLs over a full season, meaning 275 total overtime games. I really didn’t want to do the math, but there were 336 ties and 145 OTLs in ‘03/’04. That’s 313 overtime games.

They’re playing fewer extra frames. Why? Because teams are actually tapping the rubber and twine formula. Scoring, as we now know, wins games.

The New Look NHL may not be J.F Dulles’s creation (historical/political reference, so don’t be upset if you don’t get it), but it looks to be going strong. Sure, the OLN channel is an embarrassment, but people will get tired of poker one of these days and ESPN will have to go back to the ice. Really, are you proud you know who Phil Hellmuth is?