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Should NHL Adopt Olympic Point System?

By David Oleksy

When is the NHL going to stop being stubborn and realize the three point game is bad for hockey? It doesn't make sense that in the same night they can award two points in some games and three in others and yet it happens.

The 2010 Winter Olympic hockey tournament is using a different system to run their tournament. They are awarding three points for a regulation win, two points for an overtime or shootout win, one point for an overtime or shootout loss and zero points for a regulation loss.

A couple of games went to overtime and the point system altered the standings considerably. If the tournament was using the NHL point system, Canada would have been a number four seed and would have had a first round bye. This is a three game tournament and just a couple of points make a world of difference. Over the course of an 82 game schedule the standings may not be altered too much.

I was surprised to find out that the standings would be altered quite considerably. Many teams would be in the very same position but others swapped spots. It affected the lower playoff seeds more than it did the top seeds. Follow the jump to see the results.

Eastern Conference
Eastern Conference Standings Eastern Conference Standings (Olympic Style)
 Team GP W L OTL PTS  Team GP W OTW OTL L PTS
 1   Washington 62 41 13 8 90  1   Washington 62 34 7 8 13 124
 2   New Jersey 61 37 21 3 77  2   New Jersey 61 29 8 3 21 106
 3   Ottawa 63 36 23 4 76  3   Ottawa 63 28 8 4 23 104
 4   Pittsburgh 62 36 22 4 75  4   Pittsburgh 62 26 10 4 22 102
 5   Buffalo 60 33 18 9 75  5   Buffalo 60 26 7 9 18 101
 6   Philadelphia 60 32 25 3 67  6   Philadelphia 60 27 5 3 25 94
 7   Boston 60 27 22 11 65  7   NY Rangers 62 25 3 7 27 88
 8   Montreal 63 29 28 6 64  8   Tampa Bay 61 20 6 11 24 83
 9   NY Rangers 62 28 27 7 63  9   Atlanta 60 20 6 10 24 82
 10   Tampa Bay 61 26 24 11 63  10   Boston 60 17 10 11 22 82
 11   Atlanta 60 26 24 10 62  11   Montreal 63 16 13 6 28 80
 12   Florida 61 24 27 10 58  12   Florida 61 18 6 10 27 76
 13   NY Islanders 62 25 29 8 58  13   Carolina 61 19 5 7 30 74
 14   Carolina 61 24 30 7 55  14   NY Islanders 62 12 12 8 29 68
 15   Toronto 61 19 31 11 49  15   Toronto 61 18 1 11 31 67

 

The 1-6 seeds in the Eastern Conference remained the same while big changes happened the rest of the way down the standings. It will be interesting to see how the standings finish at the end of the season but I have a feeling that some teams will make the playoffs that shouldn't actually be there.

Western Conference
Western Conference Standings Western Conference Standings (Olympic Style)
 Team GP W L OTL PTS  Team GP W OTW OTL L PTS
 1   San Jose 62 40 13 9 89  1   San Jose 62 33 7 9 13 122
 2   Chicago 61 41 15 5 87  2   Chicago 61 28 13 5 15 120
 3   Vancouver 61 37 22 2 76  3   Vancouver 63 32 5 2 22 108
 4   Phoenix 63 37 21 5 79  4   Colorado 61 29 6 6 20 105
 5   Los Angeles 61 37 20 4 78  5   Los Angeles 61 27 10 4 20 105
 6   Colorado 61 35 20 6 76  6   Phoenix 63 25 12 5 21 104
 7   Nashville 61 33 23 5 71  7   Nashville 61 25 8 5 23 96
 8   Calgary 62 30 23 9 69  8   Calgary 62 25 5 9 23 94
 9   Detroit 61 28 21 12 68  9   Anaheim 62 24 6 7 25 91
 10   Dallas 61 28 21 12 68  10   Detroit 61 22 6 12 21 90
 11   Anaheim 62 30 25 7 67  11   Dallas 61 22 6 12 21 90
 12   St. Louis 62 28 25 9 65  12   Minnesota 61 22 8 4 27 86
 13   Minnesota 61 30 27 4 64  13   St. Louis 62 20 8 9 25 85
 14   Columbus 63 25 28 10 60  14   Columbus 63 20 5 10 28 85
 15   Edmonton 61 19 36 6 44  15   Edmonton 61 14 5 6 36 58

 

The Western Conference doesn't have the same shakeup in the standings as the Eastern Conference had. Still the experiment shows me that the NHL should change to this point system. It will not alter the standings too much but it will eliminate the "three-point game". This system would allow three points in all games instead of only some games.

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