When the NHL emerged from its year-long lockout and began the 2006 season, the box scores in the sports section of the newspaper were greeted with a new system by which to calculate NHL standings. No longer was the league using its archaic and cumbersome four-column formula whereby a team received two points for a victory, one point for a tie, one point for a loss in overtime, and zero points for a loss. One of the biggest rules changes to come out of the lockout was that the NHL implemented the shootout to decide games tied after the five-minute overtime period...
The current system has been streamlined down to three simple columns: wins, losses and overtime losses. Two points are still awarded for a victory; none are awarded for a loss. But now, instead of having ties, the NHL has decided that each team earns an automatic point for sending the game to overtime. The final point for victory, if it is not determined in the five-minute overtime window, now goes to the winner of the shootout - in which three skaters from each side have a penalty shot against the opposing goaltender. In the end, the system only changed so that there would always be someone emerging from a contest with a two-point boost in the standings.
Each team has eighty-two games to amass as many points as possible within this structure. As the season goes on, the standings reflect division leaders by their point totals. But there are still other questions to address...
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN TWO OR MORE TEAMS ARE TIED IN POINTS?
There are several tiebreakers which are used to help break ties amongst teams with equal numbers of points. The first is the simplest: it is calculated on number of games played. Why? Because, quite simply, the vagaries of scheduling do not allow for every team to play on the same days. For example, if two teams are tied with 64 points in February, yet Team A has played 60 games and Team B only 58, then Team B would be ranked ahead in the standings.
If two teams have played the same number of games - for instance, when the regular season is over and playoff spots are being determined - the standing of these teams is decided based on number of victories. As an example, look at these two teams:
TEAM A: 41 wins, 28 losses, 13 overtime losses = 95 points
TEAM B: 38 wins, 25 losses, 19 overtime losses = 95 points
The teams look evenly matched. But Team A would be ranked ahead of Team B in the standings due to having won three more games.
If the two teams are still tied after this second tie-breaker is implemented, then the next variable is the head-to-head season series between the two teams. If the teams are in the same division, they will have played eight games against one another; otherwise, conference foes play four games against each other during the season. So if Team A won two games in the season series, lost once and lost a shootout, while Team B won two games (one being the shootout) and lost the other two in regulation, then Team A would be ranked higher...
But say one of Team A's victories was also in a shootout or in overtime? Each team would then have gained five points against the other. The final tiebreaker is goal differential. This is calculated by subtracting the goals scored against a team during the season from the goals scored by that team:
Team A: 221 goals for, 187 goals against = +34 goal differential
Team B: 235 goals for, 212 goals against = +23 goal differential
In this instance it is not how many goals have been scored, but the gap between how many a team nets and how many a team allows which determines ranking. Here in this example, Team A would be placed higher in the standings.
HOW ARE PLAYOFF SEEDS DETERMINED?
The rankings work the same way at the end of the regular season as they do during the season. The top three seeds in each conference are reserved for division winners. The team with the highest point total among these division champs is given the first seed, the next highest gets the second seed, and the lowest point total among the division champs gets the third seed. Then the same formula is applied for seeds four through eight, with the established tiebreakers being used to differentiate teams with equal point totals.
Honestly, it is this simple. Next time you look at a hockey standings column in the newspaper, it won't appear as just a jumble of disparate numbers...