Well anybody who knows me knows I love hearing this.
Through Monday night, there had been 36 games in the AHL that went to overtime, 16 of them were decided four-on-four, 14 of them with the new three-on-three format and only six of those games needed a shootout.
Consider that last season, before the three-on-three part of OT was implemented in the AHL, 65 percent of games that went to OT were decided by the shootout.
Through Monday night, only 16.6 percent of OT games were decided by the shootout.
"We are encouraged by a very positive response to the new OT format," AHL president David Andrews told ESPN.com via email. "We have not only reduced the percentage of our games being decided by the shootout, but more importantly, have found the three-on-three competition to be very exciting for our fans."
Somewhere, Detroit Red Wings general manager Ken Holland is smiling. He has been pushing for three-on-three to be added to NHL overtime for years.
Know this: the AHL three-on-three experiment will almost definitely be brought up next week when the league’s 30 GMs meet in Toronto.