If you bump OT from five minutes to 10 minutes, you get more of the good stuff and less of the bad stuff. But if some games are going to still make it to the shootout, why don't we attempt to fix that too while we're at it? There haven't been many memorable shootouts in recent memory -- at least not at the NHL level. Think about the last great shootout you remember. What was it? Let me guess, it was this one:. Yeah, thought so. Jocelyne Nicole Lamoureux-Davidson's game winner in the Winter Olympics of course comes to mind as well, but she only shot twice in that shootout.
Oshie was sent to the ice SIX times, and scored on four of them. That's the chaos I'm going for with this. NHL shootouts would be a lot more interesting if they took the international rules and allowed the best players to take multiple attempts, notably like Oshie did in the clip above. You'd likely have more goals, more highlights and the potential for epic player-vs-player showdowns to remember.
Imagine an Oilers-Avalanche game goes to OT and still can't find a winner. Are you bummed, or are you excited about the possibility of seeing Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon square off in a back-and-forth breakaway showdown? Even if the NHL made three different different skaters take attempts before getting to use a repeat shooter it would be an improvement from the current state of things. The Problem: In , the league switched away from a scheduling format that saw teams play 32 inter-divisional games, 72 within the conference and only 10 out of conference.
Now, every team plays 29 games within their division games per opponent , 21 games within the conference 3 games per non-divisional opponent and 32 out of conference games 2 games per opponent. That may be part of the reason the league changed its playoff format in to put an emphasis on divisional rivalries. Instead of using a straight-up seeding format, each conference is broken up into two separate divisional brackets. While each division winner draws a Wild Card, the two- and three-seeds in each division automatically match up against one another in the first round.
The most glaring issue with all of this is that a strong division forces good, successful teams into tougher and more unfair first-round matchups than they deserve. Take last year's Atlantic division, which featured three of the best teams in the entire NHL. The Toronto Maple Leafs finished last season with points tied for 7th-most in the league , making them the 5th seed in the Eastern Conference.
But because the Bruins points, T-2nd in the league finished behind a historically good Lightning team in the Atlantic, the Leafs had the unfortunate luck of drawing Boston in the first round as Atlantic 2 vs. Atlantic 3. And Toronto lost in seven games The Solution: The league should attempt to place a little more emphasis on divisional rivalries during the regular season by finding a medium between the old schedule format and the current one.
It doesn't seem necessary for teams to play 32 out of conference games every year, so cut that number in half and have teams face each out of conference foe once per season, with home games alternating each year.
The Central consists of Cup winner St. This is the only division with seven teams instead of eight. When NHL Seattle starts play in as the league's 32nd franchise, Arizona will move to the Central division to form four eight-team divisions. The divisional standings format is the default mode because the first 12 teams to qualify for each spring's team playoffs derive from the first-, second- and third-place teams in each division. That covers six of eight spots in the Eastern Conference and same for the West.
Next it gets a bit more complicated because the fourth-place finishers in each division are not guaranteed to qualify for the playoffs. The final two spots in each conference are awarded to the two remaining "Wild Card" teams in the conference with the best record.
It could be the fourth-place teams from each division or two from the same division fourth- and fifth-place finishers. This Wild-Card format, sometimes labeled "Playoffs" by media, keeps more fans engaged and hopeful.
That's why most media outlets list NHL standings for both "Division" and "Wild Card"-prompting newbies to ask hockey-fans friends to explain, hey, why the two formats? Here's a quick example: The Chicago Blackhawks, who won three Stanley Cups in the just-finished decade, are dead last in the Central Division. But the team's fans might take heart that the 'Hawks are within a four- or five-game winning streak of being atop the wild-card standings.
Fun fact: North American sports vernacular is "standings" while European soccer fans refer to team places in their leagues as "tables. Let's turn to the columns in NHL standings, especially the concept of team points. When an NHL wins a game, it is awarded two points. With an game regular season schedule, there is a maximum of points for any team. If NHL teams surpass points, it almost always qualifies them as a top-three finisher in their divisions.
The top team each year is usually above points. Last season, Tampa Bay finished with an incredible points. This is where is gets even more complicated. You can lose in the NHL and still gain points.
But do you know what inspired even more hope? Let's say you're a San Jose Sharks fan. Condolences, this season. The current standings have them 11 points out of the final Western wild card. They're closer mathematically, and much closer rhetorically. Different points system formats offer a few variations on the current standings.
But outside of the Jets sneaking in through one alternative, we're not seeing any major swings in the 16 teams that hold down playoff spots compared to the current points system. This isn't what those who'd like to see a change in that format want to see, but is probably music to the ears of advocates for the status quo like Predators GM David Poile -- "I think this falls into the category of: If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
The system works. Skip to main content Skip to navigation. Would the NHL standings change with a different points system?
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