Dater makes the case in SI that the shootout is killing the race to the 8th spot. Good article, and I agree. We need to make a loss a loss and reduce the value of the shootout win. CobraAceS has the right idea (don’t know if he originated it, but I’ll give him credit): ROW: 2 points (10 min 4v4 OT) SOW: 1 point Loss of any kind: 0 points Now I could see a team leading in a bubble run (8th spot or higher) trying to drive to the shootout to prevent a team behind them from getting 2 points, and that would suck too, but I think it’s a less common scenario. And, at least one team would still be trying to score, whereas now you have neither.