An NHL Team With Less Than 20 Regulation Wins Is About To Make The Playoffs, And That's Just Wrong
With a 3-2-1-0 system, the playoff picture is very different.
The NHL's current playoff format has faced a lot of criticism this year, but I think the bigger problem is the point system.
Yeah, I'm far from the first person to bring this up, and it's been talked about a lot, but apparently not enough.
Because we could see a team with less than 20 regulation wins 77 games into the season make the playoffs.
And that is just straight up wrong.
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As of Tuesday morning, the Los Angeles Kings are sitting in the Western Conference's final wild card spot, despite having won only 19 games in 60 minutes this season.
Are… are you kidding me?
No, sadly, this is not a joke. The Kings have posted a 32-26-19 record this season, good for 83 points, which puts them one point up on the first team out of the postseason in the Western Conference, the Nashville Predators.
But, as we know, only 19 of those 32 wins came in regulation.
So, if we adjust all of this to a 3-2-1-0 system (as best we can with lackluster math skills), the results are pretty drastic.
The Kings would have 102 points. Meanwhile, the 36-31-10 Predators — who have 26 regulation wins — would have 114 points.
In the King's defense, it doesn't make sense to get mad at them for racking up as many points as they can, given the current system. But obviously, that system needs to be retooled a little bit so that the "loser point" that comes with an overtime or shootout loss doesn't carry as much weight.
We also need to encourage teams to try to win in regulation as opposed to just coasting into OT to lock in one point and hope for a second.
The Kings aren't the only beneficiaries of this system this year. The Vegas Golden Knights have 16 losses in OT, which has helped them into third in the Pacific Division, while in the Metropolitan, the Pittsburgh Penguins and — it kills me to say it — Philadelphia Flyers have been helped out thanks to their loser point totals, which are 16 and 12, respectively, while the Flyers also have a lot of wins that came beyond 60 minutes.