This is something I was going to pitch anyways. Everyone -- except the one guy who won't press A of course -- skips them, so why have them?
Redshirt once told me they liked the idea of slightly longer periods in the EASHL as a way to produce more varied games. However, they were reluctant to do it for fear of losing the 20-25 min game experience. I'd be willing to wager that by stripping down between-whistle cutscenes and eliminating intermission replays, they could probably go to 7min periods in nearly the same amount of real time...
And thanks for the detailed post, OBG.