John Tortorella is the anti-shootout crusader we deserve

John Tortorella’s fiery post-game takes don’t often gain much traction outside of a pure entertainment standpoint, but his latest damn well should.

Torts, just like 99.99 percent of hockey-watching humans in existence — is a big fan of the NHL’s exhilarating 3-on-3 overtime format. Sure, it’s easier to feel that way after your team squeaks out a 4-3 OT win in Toronto, but that’s neither here nor there.

This man does not like the shootout and I have never been more Team Tortorella than I am at this very moment. It’s been nearly 15 seasons since the league adopted the breakaway competition to break ties and honestly that’s about 14 years too many.

The anti-shootout arguments have been presented before — the main one being that a 1-on-1 skills exhibition is no real way to end a hard-fought team competition. Let’s add this one to the top of the pile, too: it’s just plain boring.

If Torts wants to lead us into the new era of shootout-free tiebreakers and extended three-a-side OT, I will follow him to the depths of hell.

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