NHL needs new points system

An article by Kevin Weisel    No Comments

In the NHL, two [2] points are rewarded for a regulation win. If the game is tied at the end of regulation, both teams are rewarded one [1] point, making the additional point up for grabs. There’s a five minute overtime period to try to decide the game, and if it’s still tied after that, the game goes to a shootout. A shootout is composed of three rounds. Each team chooses three shooters and they get a free breakaway chance to score on the goalie. If it’s tied after three rounds, it goes to sudden death. It can be quite exciting and, overall, the fans love it (it should be noted that for the playoffs there is no shootout; if it is tied after regulation it goes into sudden death overtime).

When you look at the standings in the other major sports (NFL, NBA, MLB) there are no ties (yes, the NFL can have ties, but it rarely happens). This is nice and makes for clean standings based off of wins. The NHL standings are based off of points. It makes sense, but it needs to be delved out more intelligently.

Currently, it’s 2 points for a win–whether you win in regulation, overtime, or a shootout.

It’s one point for an overtime loss or a shootout loss.

And zero points for a regulation loss.

The meaning of this is that teams wanted to get a point for being tied at the end of regulation, as sort of a half reward. The problem with this is that teams often “play” for overtime to ensure themselves a point. They will, for example, stop taking as many chances and play a trap style defense late in a game, or sometimes even earlier if they feel they can’t win if they open up the game (taking more chances obviously opens you up to give up more chances. If the game is tied halfway through the final period, some teams might clamp down and play a defensive-styled game to try to ensure they get at least one point). This is not necessarily less competitive, but it is definitely less exciting.

So I propose a change!

Regulation win is three [3] points. Regulation loss is zero [0] points.

Overtime win is two [2] points. Overtime loss is one [1] point.

Shootout win is one [1] point. Shootout loss is zero [0] points.

This inherently forces teams to fight much harder and take more risks for a regulation win. This will create more exciting hockey and higher scoring games. Less games will go to overtime, and even less to a shootout. Standings will look much cleaner, and wins and losses will be more reflective of how good, or bad, a team is. Also, there is some sentiment among hockey fans that shootout wins aren’t “real” wins because it’s a battle of individual talent instead of winning the game as a team. Giving one [1] point for a shootout win and zero [0] points for a shootout loss makes it pretty clear that no teams will want to go all the way to a shootout, let alone overtime.

What do you think?