It's OT, but I don't care.
Congrats to the US Women.
As a long time NHL season ticket holder, I understand the idea against the shootout for playoff/Olympic victory decisions, but I figured NBC and the OC figured they needed to have a winner decided within normal television programming time frames? I doubt their ratings have been great this time around and they probably needed this. (Understood the rules were set before the ratings were known)
TV controls all. I bet if the networks would pay the NHL enough, they would convert to shootouts even in the SC finals. And, having sat through 3 of the longest playoff games in history (Dallas Stars under Hitchcock would have played for a week in their defensive style) at some point, it gets irrelevant. When my son was young, we left one 3 OT game on a school night, figuring we knew it would end one of two ways. The possible celebration wouldn't have been worth it, balanced against lack of sleep and the possible heart break.
When the women are showing their grand kids their gold metal, no one will recall it was won in shoot out, and one granny has a pretty good story to tell (although a game winning OT goal for the gold would be equally good!)