Here Is A Prime Example Of Why The NHL Needs To Kill Off The 'Loser Point'

This has been one of the funkier years in recent memory when it comes to the NHL standings at roughly the halfway point of the year.

The Eastern Conference is about as congested as you'll ever see it in January, while a handful of teams have scampered off into the distance out west.

But we've got a problem that needs to be addressed, and it's not the first time it has come up: we need to kill off the loser point.

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The NHL awards teams a point if they lose a game beyond regulation, so in either overtime or a shootout. That's fair, but it occasionally results in what we've got happening in the Pacific Division.

Take a look at the standings before Thursday's batch of games.

Notice anything odd?

Perhaps that the Vegas Golden Knights lead the division despite being tied for the fifth-most wins in it, along with the Kings in fifth place and the Flames way down in seventh?

Yeah, that's all thanks to the 12 (12!!!!) games that the Golden Knights have lost beyond regulation.

The NHL really needs to go with the 3-2-1-0 system that other leagues, including the PWHL, use. That awards three points for a regulation win, two points for an overtime/shootout win, one point for an overtime/shootout loss, and nothing for a regulation loss.

This way, you still get a "loser point" for dropping a game in OT, but teams are rewarded for winning games in regulation.

Adopting this system would shake up the standings and make them more accurate. Vegas is a good team, but losses are losses, and they shouldn't be leading a division based on the fact that these losses came beyond regulation.

This has been coming up more in recent years, and hopefully, goofy results like this will get the league to fix this.