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The Case for the NHL to Change Their Point System

After the lockout of the 2004-2005 season, the NHL knew they needed some sort of gimmick to entice fans back as well as capture new ones. They soon decided on implementing a shootout after the 5 minute overtime period in order for there to be a winner of the game (yay no more boring ties!). But little did they foresee the impeding problems with such a decision.

Giving away that extra point to teams meant that any NHL game going to overtime would award 3 points towards the standings as opposed to the normal 2 in a regulation win. This was sort of in place before the lockout when the NHL decided to award a team 1 point for an overtime loss, but the amount of games that won in OT to get that third point was minimal compared to what it is like now.

I know there are countless articles and arguments against the shootout from NHL conservatives ever since it came out, so I am not going to beat a dead horse. Since I am a soccer player and fan, I am used to ties and am okay with them. Having said that, I am not naïve to think that everyone in the Northern Continent is also on board with me. So instead, I am arguing that the NHL change their point system to reflect those 3 point games and awarding teams for winning in regulation rather than rewarding the ones who don’t.

Changing the point system makes sense, it is very easy and this is how I would do it:

  1. Make a regulation win 3 points
  2. Keep Overtime or Shootout Wins 2 points
  3. Keep Overtime or Shootout losses to 1 point

After going through the standings for the past 6 seasons since the lockout changing the standings, some things popped out at me:

  1. There weren’t as many differences as I thought there would be for who makes playoffs and who doesn’t.
  2. The standings now truly show who the stronger teams were as well as differentiating the weaker ones from the rest of the pack. For example, in 2007-2008 the Atlanta Thrashers should have been in dead last and would have drafted Steve Stamkos instead of the Lightning. Edmonton also drops from 19th overall in the league to 24th with their 15 shootout wins.
  3. The Sharks would have played the Minnesota Wild in the first round of the 2009 playoffs instead of the Anaheim Ducks. Who knows what would have happened…
  4. How bad was Edmonton in the last two seasons to be in last place both years? They have a combined 39 regulation wins in two seasons. The Sharks had 38 regulation wins alone last year.

I could stare at this thing all day and night and find more but I will let you find some more of your own gems and see where your favorite teams would be.

I don’t think the NHL will adopt it, unfortunately, but I do think they should consider it when they meet about the realignment that will be happening after this upcoming season. I will write up my own ideas on that in the coming weeks to keep your NHL starved news during the dog days of summer.

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