Here is my take: There are 82 games in a season. A team can go undefeated and garner 164 points. That would be a great season – no doubt – best ever!
A team can lose all of its games and get no points. That would be equally historic. A team can tie all of its games and lose all of them in OT or shootout and have 82 points. That team would have no wins and NOT be in last place in the NHL standings. A team can lose 70 games in OT or shootout while winning twelve games outright and have 94 points and qualify for the playoffs, etc. etc. Would that be a mediocre season or a bad season? Or an under .500 season? You get my point. Eighty-two points is halfway to 164 points, a .500 record. We have played 79 games and we have 88 points. We have a better than .500 record. The league just went to three point games with shootouts post lockout. The logic had to change on what qualifies for a .500 record. Maybe I am wrong but right now, I don’t care anymore. I just want us to make the playoffs regardless of what our record is according to the NY Times. 
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Our ice is bad enough at the end of a regulation period. A 10-minute overtime would mean playing on really bad ice in our house and bad ice in other arenas. If you don’t want the shootout, fine, drop the shootout.
Go back to a game is three periods, sixty minutes, you win, lose, or tie. Two for the win, one for the tie, none for the loss. What difference does a 5 minute OT, a 10 minute OT, or a 5 minute OT w/ shootout really make?
And why go to 4 on 4? None of the major sports (football, baseball, or basketball) take players off the field/court during overtime, so why does hockey? 4v4 is a different game, as is a shootout…why change to determine the outcome of a game?
quick follow up….why is it acceptable to have something given to both teams in hockey?? this is a joke. basketball, no ties…you play 3 ots and lose, oh well, play again the next night..you have 84 games…baseball, same deal, you get nothing for getting to the 15th inning and losing. even football, where you could justify giving something to a team for making it to OT employs a same format play as regulation where ties are extrememly rare.
the fans that you tried to win back 4 years ago LOVE that they call more penalties, and that their is no 2 line pass, and delayed offsides. but we never asked for or wanted shootouts or 4 on 4 to decide key games..lets play 5 on 5 hockey till we have a winner or call it a tie after a 10 minute overtime..
this and these brawls nightly outside the goalie crease are the 2 big things that need to be fixed still. heaven forbid someone even breathe on another persons goalie.
GET RID OF THE FREAKING SHOOT-OUT!!!!!!!
Ted,
I think a team should not receive the one point until they reach the shoot-out. If a team loses during the 5 minute overtime, they should get zip. This will affect the way they will need to play during the overtime.
Obviously, the league awarded the one point to the losing team to help the weaker teams in the league. Clearly, this has worked since so few teams have low point numbers. I don’t think this is bad for the league.
Go Caps!
Perhaps the NHL should consider a 3 point system for all games. If you win in regulation you get three points. An OT or shootout win is 2 and an OT loss is 1. They might also consider having the OT go 10 minutes. 10 minutes of 4 on 4 seems highly likely to pretty much eliminate the shootout except on rare occasions. I think I heard Barry Melrose or Pierre McGuire make this suggestion on Versus.
Ted – No matter what happens at the end of the season, you and George McPhee have made moves that will impact the Caps for many seasons to come.
- Trading Pettinger for Cooke (hope you can sign him).
- Bringing up Laing (seeing Kozlov and others do the “Laing Dive” makes me warm and fuzzy).
- Bringing in Federov (even if you don’t resign him, he seems to have been invaluable to the team’s development).
- Replacing Hanlon with Boudreau (’nuff said).
Thank you so much for making this one of the most entertaining seasons ever.
But to be above average you need to add up every teams points at the end of the year and divide by 30.
Lets invest some time at the owners meeting in really changing the point system. I have grown weary of these 3 pt games, and teams just rolling out a trap once the game is tied late in the second and playing to get at least one point..
NEW RULES:
game finishes in regulation:
2 pts to the winner
0 to the loser
game is tied after regulation:
10 min 5 on 5 OT….odds are someone will be tired and someone will score.
again, 2 pts to the winner
0, NOT ONE, for the loser
game is still tied after OT.
either give both teams one point, or keep the shootout (which by the way is NOT a favorite of many TRUE HOCKEY PURISTS) and have 2 pts go to the winner of a shootout and one to the loser..
THERE SHOULD BE SOME DIFFERENCE IN POINTS WHEN YOU TRANSITION FROM OT TO A SHOOTOUT, JUST LIKE THERE IS A TRANSITION FROM REG TO OT.
This way, if you need 2 pts really bad, you will stop sitting on your ass for 30 min of the game, waiting to just get one point…Trust me, it will make the sport much better…
Maybe it’s time to pick up on what the IIHF is doing for games in the world championships (they did this last year for the first time). All games are worth 3 points. If you win outright you get 3, an OT/SO win is worth 2, an OT/SO loss is worth 1, and you get nothing for a regulation loss. At that point each game is worth the same, so it becomes a “zero-sum” game.
The ideal set up is what they do in soccer, in that a winning team gets 3 points, and a tie gives one point to each team (yes, it means bringing back ties). What that would do is *really* motivate folks in OT, as if both teams don’t score, everyone loses 2 points… and it would get rid of the shoot-out…
Ted,
Were you bored when you thought through all this trivia?
Great read regardless
Go Caps!
This whole discussion is quite humerous and why blogs are just awesome.
Here is a thought. Since the fans love the shootouts, why not have the shootout victories count as the first tie-breaker in final standings. So, if a game ends after a 5 minute overtime, as a tie, each team gets one standings point. And the team that ‘wins’ the shootout gets a tiebreaker point good only if two teams finish the season with the same number of points.
The New York Times?? Isn’t that the paper thats sold in pet stores… to line bird cages??
The OTL is one of the most idiotic things in all of sports. The only place where you should get “consolation points” or “effort points” is in youth sports and elementary schools, not one of the biggest and widely followed sports leagues on the planet. There should be two outcomes: wins and losses. Your 3rd paragraph proves the stupidity of the current system.
If you believed in the old point system… Caps have gone to 8 shootouts this year, which would’ve been ties under the old point system. Also they have lost 4 games in OT which would’ve been regular loses under the old point system. Ergo their record would currently be
36 – 35 – 8 (80 pts) under the old point system. It’s not quite a straightforward conversion however because the realities of the point system and the 4 on 4 play increase the chance of OT decision. So there would probably be more than 8 ties and a one or two fewer wins and/or loses but around 80 pts.
The NHL had 3 point games pre-lockout but not so many were. If you lost in OT, you still got a point.
George McPhee should vote for a 3-2-1-0 system… 3 for a regulation win, 2 for an OT win, 3 for a shootout/OT loss, and 0 for a loss, this way EVERY GAME IS EQUAL.
It looks as if Philly, Rangers and Boston are benefitting more than the Caps with SOL and OTL. 4 teams all have 40 wins fighting for 3 playoff spots. Go Caps Go
Ted,
Given how many teams are above .500 (and how few are below), I’m not sure that I agree with you that having more wins than losses (not counting overtime losses) is that big a deal. But I do agree — all that matters now is to make the playoffs.
The damned Bruins got a point tonight for losing a game in overtime. They may have lost the game, but they certainly have continued to turn the screws on the Caps. As long as losing a game in OT is going to count for a point, you can’t consider it a total “loss.”
The NY times needs to make a distinction between NHL and other sports that don’t use the point system.
Personally, I wouldn’t mind seeing the return of the tie in the NHL. Unless they can credit Kozlov with his several goals from scoring the decider in the shootout, I don’t think they should have a shootout. It’s a different point entirely, but this would help solve the whole .500 issue.