The “What If” Standings

I’ve been hearing a good amount of “what if"s lately.  A couple of them were:
- What if the NHL didn’t go to the shootout.  What would the standings look like?
- What if the NHL used 3 points for non-shootout wins (and 2 for a shootout win and 1 for an overtime or shootout loss)?

I was reminded about this today by Eric Weinrich’s article on mainetoday.com:

Do I think more goals are going in because of the reduction in the size of goalie equipment? No, I don’t. I actually like the shootouts, but I would award a team three points for a win in overtime to give more reward for winning before the shootout. Imagine the shakeup it could cause in playoff races.

(found via Kukla’s)

So I put the what ifs to work.  I took today’s normal NHL standings and added points for games minus shootout points (as though the games ended in a tie) and I also added points as though the NHL gave 3 points for a non-shootout win.

GP W L OTL SOL SOW PTS PSO P3W GF GA
Detroit 57 39 13 4 1 1 1 83 1 82 1 121 208 142
Carolina 57 39 14 3 1 6 2 82 3 76 2 115 215 176
Ottawa 56 37 14 1 4 2 3 79 2 77 3 114 223 137
Dallas 58 38 17 3 0 8 4 79 7 71 4 109 192 156
NY Rangers 58 35 15 7 1 5 5 78 5 73 6 108 189 142
Buffalo 56 36 15 1 4 4 6 77 6 73 5 109 186 158
Philadelphia 58 33 16 5 4 2 7 75 4 73 7 106 196 186
Nashville 58 34 18 3 3 4 8 74 9 70 8 104 183 169
Calgary 57 33 17 2 5 2 9 73 8 71 9 104 153 144
Vancouver 59 33 21 2 3 2 10 71 10 69 10 102 198 180
Colorado 59 32 21 1 5 2 11 70 11 68 11 100 213 187
Los Angeles 60 32 23 4 1 4 12 69 12 65 12 97 203 200
Edmonton 58 30 20 3 5 6 13 68 15 62 14 92 192 186
Tampa Bay 58 32 22 1 3 3 14 68 13 65 13 97 180 168
New Jersey 58 30 22 4 2 6 15 66 18 60 16 90 170 166
Anaheim 57 27 19 5 6 2 16 65 14 63 17 90 168 159
Minnesota 59 29 25 2 3 2 17 63 16 61 15 90 176 153
San Jose 56 27 21 2 6 1 18 62 17 61 18 88 174 171
Montreal 56 26 22 6 2 2 19 60 20 58 20 84 160 180
Toronto 57 27 25 1 4 2 20 59 21 57 19 84 178 191
Atlanta 58 26 26 2 4 2 21 58 22 56 21 82 194 203
Phoenix 59 27 28 2 2 4 22 58 23 54 23 81 171 192
Boston 58 24 24 5 5 0 23 58 19 58 22 82 168 180
NY Islanders 56 25 27 1 3 5 24 54 25 49 24 74 165 200
Florida 57 22 27 5 3 1 25 52 24 51 25 73 154 178
Columbus 58 23 33 0 2 6 26 48 26 42 26 65 147 209
Chicago 57 18 31 5 3 2 27 44 27 42 27 60 145 199
Washington 56 19 32 2 3 6 28 43 29 37 28 56 156 217
St. Louis 56 16 31 4 5 4 29 41 30 37 29 53 153 210
Pittsburgh 59 14 34 7 4 1 30 39 28 38 30 52 165 236

Legend:
GP - Games played
W - Wins
L - Losses
OTL - Overtime losses
SOL - Shootout losses
SOW - Shootout wins
PTS - Points
PSO - Points without shootout wins
P3W - Points if non-shootout wins were worth 3 points
GF - Goals for
GA - Goals against

Western teams have been shaded blue and horizontal rules were placed after the 8th team in each conference to allow for easier playoff race viewing.

The column to the left of each type of points with no heading is a league-wide ranking (1-30). GF was used as a tie-breaker.

As you can see, there's little difference. Of course, a little difference can mean one team into the playoffs, and another team out by the end of the season. The change as of today: instead of being alone in the 8th and final spot in the Eastern Conference, Montreal would be tied for it in both alternate scenarios (losing the tie-breaker in both).

Posted by David M Singer on Feb 13, 2006 at 05:26 PM
NHL

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