AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

Last September NoVa Caps conducted a poll of its readers to get a sense of how Caps fans felt about the new 3-on-3 overtime format. Let’s just say the results were less than favorable for the new format. We decided to circle back on the topic, and see if a full season had changed the opinions Caps fans.

To recap, the results from our original poll conducted last September: (2,400 votes)

Updated poll:

We did a poll on new 3-on-3 OT format last September, and would like to get an update: Do you like 3-on-3 OT format?

— NoVa Caps (@NoVa_Caps) July 23, 2016

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Fan responses:

@NoVa_Caps I voted no despite the fact I like it’s fast pace. Too much like the shootout – the team who played the best doesn’t always win

— Megan Upshaw (@hvtardiswltrvl) July 23, 2016

Whether a fan of the new format or not, it’s fairly clear that the basic intent to reduce the number of shootouts has been achieved, at least after one season.

Style Change
It should be noted that as the season progressed, a greater percentage of 3-on-3 overtime games went to a shootout. This is likely due to the fact that teams began to adopt a more conservative style of play for 3-on-3 overtime as the season progressed. According to ESPN, After 171 overtime games, 109 of them were decided in the 3-on-3 – that’s 63.7 percent, or slightly higher than the average for the season. The question remains, will the conservative style of play continue to increase?