It’s my Parting Shot to urge the tall foreheads in charge of hockey to make the sensible and necessary rule or format change for standings and determining playoff qualifiers…..
The sport’s obsession with tie games allowing for single points has been an issue ever since overtime was adopted and some knucklehead in the league office decided that you get two points for a win, period, no points for losing in regulation time, but a point for losing in overtime or a shootout. In other words, most games are only worth two total points in the standings, but several become worth three as hockey stubbornly hangs on to the one point for a tie from back in the dark ages when there was no such thing as overtime. They evolved to ensure that there is always a winner and a loser, but not enough to the point of what baseball and basketball do – no matter how long the game takes, be it 10, 11 or 18 innings in baseball or one, two or even five overtimes in basketball, you either get a tick in the win column or a tick in the loss column!
C’mon hockey, get with the times!!
Oh, I’ve heard the sorry argument from hockey types, especially the one that says the extra points from games help make the stretch runs more intriguing and exciting. Except, you still have those races with only wins and losses!
For instance, in the N-H-L right now, Buffalo would still be in the lead in the Atlantic Division with 41 wins, but Tampa Bay in second has two games in hand with 40 wins. Montreal, currently in third with 36 victories, would drop to fifth but have games in hand on both Detroit and Boston who have 37 triumphs. In the Metropolitan Division, those 15 extra time losses becoming just setbacks for Pittsburgh would drop them out of second place and into a three-way tie for third with Columbus and New Jersey and Washington right behind with 33 wins. The Islanders would jump up to second with 38 wins behind Carolina’s 42. The Central Division would stay as is, but Edmonton’s 33 wins would vault them into second spot in the Pacific Division, followed by San Jose with 32, and drop Vegas from second to a tie for fourth with Seattle at 31 victories. The Golden Knights and Kraken would also be tied for the final wildcard playoff spot.
Of course there would still be excitement and intrigue by going with just wins and losses in the standings and booting extra time points to the curb! As I said earlier, c’mon hockey, get with the times!!
That’s my Parting Shot. I’m Les Lazaruk…and it turned out nice again!
