Boston Bruins: 3 steps to fix the NHL’s overtime and standings format

3 steps to fix the NHL’s overtime and standings format.
3. Abandon Points

As I was previously stating, maybe the problem isn’t the format of overtime. Maybe it’s what teams are playing for that will move them up in the standings — points.

At first, my first thought when it came to eliminating shootouts was also eliminate the loser point, make ties a point for each team, and make wins three points. Yes, regulation and OT wins both worth three points.

But then I thought teams would still be conservative in OT and play for the tie to secure a point. Therefore, I think the best option for the NHL would be to abandon the points system for the standings and just start using wins, losses, and ties (W-L-T) to seed the teams.

I think this would keep teams from playing for the tie once getting to OT. There’s just no reason to tie if you’re not getting rewarded for it and the only way you can actually move up in the standings is to win games.

In the instance of a tie in the standings, the first tiebreaker would be regulation wins. The team with the most wins in regulation would be seeded higher than the team with less regulation wins. The second tiebreaker would be goal differential.

Overall, the NHL has a problem. Overtime should be an exciting period of hockey where teams are taking chances to try and win games rather than being conservative and playing to not lose resulting in a boring five minutes.

I think these three steps would fix this issue as it eliminates the infamous SO, gives teams more time and opportunity to score in OT, as well as gives teams more of an incentive to win rather than tie as they don’t get a point for tying.