Jovenitti: NHL playoff overtime the best thing in sports

The greatest tournament in sports is about to begin.

What’s that you say? The NCAA… The greatest tournament in sports is about to begin.

What’s that you say? The NCAA Tournament ended last week? I’m talking about the NHL playoffs.

If you enjoyed the Olympic hockey tournament, then you will love the next two months. Sure, the game is the same as it has been for the past six months, but with an 82-game season, most regular season games are virtually meaningless. In the playoffs, every game and every little play matters.

But the best part is the one rule change that occurs during the playoffs: no shootouts.

If the game is tied after three periods, the two teams keep playing until someone scores — even if the game lasts into the wee hours of the morning.

NHL playoff overtime is the single most exciting thing in all of sports.

Yeah, I said it. I can’t think of anything better.

In playoff overtime, the puck can go in the net at any time, and a team can be sent home in an instant.

Think about game five of the 2008 Stanley Cup Finals. The Detroit Red Wings were leading the Penguins three games to one in the series. The game went to overtime. If the Red Wings scored, they would have won the Stanley Cup, and the Penguins would have been finished.

But sometime after 1 a.m., the Penguins scored on a wrist shot from the point by Petr Sykora in the third overtime period. The series was prolonged, and the Penguins came home to try to force a game seven.

Last year, three of the Penguins’ seven games against the Washington Capitals were decided in overtime. All three game-winning goals were deflected off defensemen into the goal.

One second there was just back-and-forth action occurring on the ice, and then the puck hit the defensemen wrong and bounced into the net. In game three, Kris Letang steered the puck into the net off a Capitals defenseman. If that hadn’t happened, the Capitals could have easily won the game and taken a commanding 3-0 lead in the series.

But these out-of-the-blue goals sent the Penguins to several victories and ultimately a Stanley Cup championship.

During playoff overtime, every time either team rushes up the ice, the entire crowd holds its breath, waiting to let out either a “Yeah!” or an “Oh!”

Sure, those moments happen sometimes in other sports, but in NHL playoff overtime, it happens during every rush. The emotions of the moments create such an adrenaline rush for the fans and players that nothing in any other sport even comes close to matching.

Butler’s last-second, desperate shot against Duke in the NCAA Championship game was certainly exciting, and it created one of the moments that I am referring to, but those only happen at the very end of basketball games. And fans know when such moments are coming. They don’t know if the ball will go in the hoop, but they know that this is the one and only hold-your-breath moment that the game will offer.

In hockey, that can happen every 10 or 20 seconds for three or four hours straight.

Football is even worse. The team drives down the field slowly, and fans know when the team is about to score. Yes, it can be very exciting and there are some of those hold-your-breath moments when a Hail Mary is launched, but those are rare — and even rarer is the number of times a Hail Mary succeeds.

Nothing compares to NHL playoff overtime.

So even if you’ve never watched hockey in your life, if you happen to stumble upon a game this week and you see the little “OT” up in the score box, do yourself a favor and watch. Not only will you not be disappointed, your heart will probably be racing by the time the puck finally hits the twine.