NHL Bans Spin-o-Rama in Shootouts

No one will dispute that the shootout out is a gimmick.

It didn't directly come into being to appease instant-gratitude casual fans who wanted to see a winner after each game's conclusion. It was driven more by the necessity to fit into a set time frame for the benefit of television scheduling.

There's probably a wonk deep in the bowels of NHL administration who can cite statistics that shootouts are a reason why the league's ratings in their desired demographic of males aged 25-49 are better than ever and still rising. And that will be reason enough to ensure the regular-season shootout won't be disappearing anytime soon.

With that in mind, it's ironic that the spin-o-rama will. This was one of a litany of rule tweaks that will take effect in the 2014-2015 season:

The other changes might be useful, but how does a circus move get deleted from a sideshow?

So say goodbye to showstoppers like these:

Well, complete stops are a moot point, now.

Och då, det finns Linus Klasen:

In fact, you won't see it here, either:

The move began as a freelance show of skill that goes all the way back to Montréal defenseman Doug Harvey in the 1950s and was mastered by legends from Dénis Savard to Bobby Orr during the game's flow. They were good that way.

For the record, here again is the stuff that makes more sense:

• Stiffer punishment for diving, including a graded scale of fines for players who dive, with their coaches getting hit in the wallet, too. The scale is by the numbers: $2000 for a second offense, $3000 for a third, $4000 for a fourth, and $5000 for each subsequent infraction. The coaches get docked $2000 on a player's fourth offense, and that goes up in $1000 increments for each subsequent infraction up to $5000.