The Same Standings
Eric at Off Wing looks at some reaction to the new standings mini-debate. In short, it all stems from NHL commish Gary Bettman letting it be known that the league was considering changing the point system for the standings.
Three for a win in regulation, two for a win in overtime or a shootout, and one for an overtime or shootout loss.
In reality, that’s not going to change the playoff picture much.
The top 8 in the West are exactly the same with the current system, 3-point system or 2-point (with 0 for a loss). Not the exact order, but the same teams.
In the East the only difference is with a 2/0 system theres a tie for 8th and 9th.
I looked at it last year as well and there was one swap (always 8th place) in each conference max. Huge for the fans of those teams, no doubt, but the system doesn’t change the face of the league like some make it out to.
At this point the league might want to consider just going to a win/loss system if they’re really trying to appeal to “the casual fan”. Taking away a few columns in the standings does make the league easier to follow at a glance.
To address something Eric brought up in a previous post: yes, teams used to play for the tie, and now those same teams would play for overtime, but I’m not sure they’d play much different with any system. Even with a 2/0 system, we could see the same game plus a few more “shootout specialists”.
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