DALLAS — The ratio of regroups (10) to shot attempts (four) in the Blackhawks-Stars overtime Friday didn’t generate much excitement.
The Stars held the puck for all but about 30 seconds of overtime but mostly just circled back into their own zone, over and over. They produced a couple of decent looks but really never threatened much until taking advantage of Hawks rookie Connor Bedard’s missed poke-check to set up Roope Hintz’s game-winner in the final seconds.
‘‘It was one of the more dull overtimes I’ve seen this year,’’ Hawks coach Luke Richardson said.
And after every dull overtime period around the NHL, the push to tweak the three-on-three rules re-emerges.
One of the topics discussed at the NHL’s general managers meeting in November was potential rule changes intended to inject more chaos into overtime. The idea is to prevent teams from regrouping and encourage the series of two-on-one rushes originally imagined.
NHL executive vice president Colin Campbell mentioned a couple of basketball-inspired tweaks: an over-and-back rule, which would prevent teams from retreating past the red or blue line once they’ve crossed it, or a shot clock.
So what do the Hawks think about those potential changes? For starters, it’s worth noting that the tactical approach and mindset in overtime definitely has evolved.
‘‘It is [about] possession,’’ forward Tyler Johnson said. ‘‘The more you can wear a team down and catch guys tired, that’s when you get your odd-man opportunities. You really shouldn’t just take shots to take shots. Three-on-three hockey, what everyone wants it to be, if you want to win it, you can’t really play that way. [The Stars] did what they needed to do to win.’’
Added forward Nick Foligno: ‘‘When you circle back, it’s funny [how] the gaps [change] sometimes, as you saw on [the Stars’ goal]. It allows you to get a step or make somebody make a bad decision.’’
What’s interesting, however, is that the statistics don’t really reflect the notion that overtimes have become less eventful.
In 2013-14 and 2014-15 — the final two seasons of four-on-four overtime — 58% and 55.5% of overtime games went to shootouts. That decreased to 38.9% in 2015-16, the first year of three-on-three, and has fluctuated between 31% and 36% in the eight seasons since.
That number is at 33.9% this season, so it’s not as though fewer games are ending in overtime than they used to.
Moreover, comparing the first three seasons of three-on-three to the last three seasons, the rate of shot attempts has fallen slightly (from 5.21 to 4.78 per five minutes), but the goal rate has risen slightly (from 0.48 to 0.53).
Plus, the Hawks are skeptical any rule changes would make things more exciting in the long term. Johnson described it as ‘‘changing the game too much,’’ too.
‘‘You change it one way, and teams find another way to counter it,’’ forward Jason Dickinson said. ‘‘We’ve got the devil that we know, right? Rather than the one we don’t.’’
Added Foligno: ‘‘I’ve heard the one where you can’t take it back over the red line once you’ve gone in. I just don’t know how really that’s going to affect three-on-three if there’s puck possession. There’s still so much [open] ice that that doesn’t really matter.
‘‘The shot clock [idea] is tough because you should be rewarded if you’re able to hold on to the puck that long. That’s why that first faceoff is so valuable. That’s why making sure you’re attacking at the right time is valuable. There’s a skill to three-on-three, and I don’t think you can overthink it too much.’’
For reference, the Hawks are 3-1 in overtimes and 0-1 in shootouts this season. They have produced 18 shot attempts while conceding 15 in three-on-three situations, so they have fared fairly well, with Bedard’s presence likely explaining why.
