The NHL's 3-on-3 overtime format has "sizzled while leaving skaters gassed, seatbacks empty and broadcasters breathless," according to Alex Prewitt of SI. It has "resolved a shortcoming in the game while pumping it with entertainment value." The format had "inconspicuous roots as an agenda item presented to the league's general managers several years ago." But it "thrived during a testing phase last year in the minor leagues," and less than two months after it was implemented in the NHL regular season, the league decided it would "be used in a minitournament" at the '16 All-Star Game. Red Wings Exec VP & GM Ken Holland was the "most vocal advocate" of 3-on-3 OT. He first took up the cause several years ago at the GM meetings, a "somewhat ironic position given that he had been one of two executives to vote against instituting the shootout" in July '05. Holland: "I guess we were a little traditionalist." Prewitt notes the AHL's competition committee, made up largely of NHL assistant GMs, before last season adopted a hybrid format for overtime -- three minutes of 4-on-4 and then, at the first stoppage thereafter, 3-on-3." NHL GMs "favored the hybrid model" over going straight to 3-on-3 OT, but the four players present at a meeting of the competition committee in early June "voiced concern." Senators D Erik Karlsson called 3-on-3 "'kind of boring,' likening it to a bag skate," while Jets D Dustin Byfuglien "ripped it, simply calling it 'stupid.'" But NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said that feedback at the league level "has been positive." Prewitt notes the decision to implement a 3-on-3 format for next month's All-Star Game required approval from the NHLPA and "received little pushback." Daly and others predict that whether the "excitement and effectiveness of 3-on-3 stays steady" will largely depend upon the coaches, who are "charged with organizing the madness" (SI, 12/7 issue).
