Point Systems and the 2023-24 NHL Season: What Difference Does It Make, Anyway?

For Eastern Conference fans, the race for the last wild card spot was a nail biter. Fans of four teams - the Detroit Red Wings, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Washington Capitals - still had a chance of claiming that last ticket to the playoffs in that last week of the regular season. As a Red Wings fan, I ended the season heartbroken when the Capitals emerged victorious after coming so close. Emotions ran high and many of my fellow fans, upset at seeing teams with fewer total wins in the playoffs and our team on the outside, aired their frustrations at the point system used in the NHL, one that awards two points for a victory, regardless of whether or not it was in regulation, and a point for teams who lose in overtime.

Since I didn’t get around to writing this immediately after the regular season ended, here’s a refresher on the results. 

The first tiebreaker used in NHL standings are regulation wins. With 5 more regulation wins than the Red Wings, Washington secured the final wild card in the playoffs. 

Not expecting things to change much but to feed my own curiosity, I wanted to look at what, if anything, would be different using different point systems in the standings. I started with the 3-2-1 point system used by the PWHL. This system awards 3 points for every regulation win, 2 points for overtime wins, and 1 point for an overtime loss. 

Using this system did not change who made it into the playoffs, but it did change some of the playoff match ups. The Western Conference side of the playoffs remains stable for the most part, except that Winnipeg overtakes Dallas for the top spot in the Central. The Jets play the Golden Knights and Dallas takes on Colorado in the first round. In the Eastern Conference both wild cards swapped with the third place teams in their respective divisions, giving us the Caps versus the Hurricanes in round one and a cross-town match up with the Isles and the Rangers. The cross-state match up in Florida, however, gets broken up in this scenario as the Panthers would take on the Maple Leafs in the first round and Boston faces the Lightning.

If you were a Red Wings fan hoping for good news, I’m sorry to say that this point system benefits teams with more regulation wins. With a league leading 14 overtime wins, Detroit didn’t stand a chance of improvement. While they still finished fifth in the Atlantic, the Sabres were right on their tails when using this format. You might be more interested in the other points system I tested, as there is some good news there.

In soccer, most leagues I know of use a 3-1 system, awarding three points for a win in any fashion and one point for a draw. Because soccer plays overtime, I determined any NHL game that ended in a shootout, regardless of outcome, counts in this exercise as a draw. I used MLS rules to determine tiebreakers, although I doubt other leagues differ much.

Starting out with what didn’t change, the Western Conference side of the playoffs looks identical to the previous scenario. Winnipeg overtakes the first spot in the Central from Dallas, nothing else changes. With the Eastern Conference, Tampa Bay moves ahead of Toronto again, still owning the tiebreaker (in these rules, total wins instead of regulation wins serve as the first tiebreaker). The Islanders return to the third position in the Metro, but Washington slides out of the second wild card slot, finishing behind Detroit who would face the Rangers in the first round of the playoffs.

While the team I cheer for benefits from this system, I would actually be more interested in seeing the NHL adopt the 3-2-1 system because I’m curious how it would impact coaching.

Keep in mind that in this experiment we are looking retrospectively, taking games that already happened and reassigning points using different systems. It’s impossible to judge if changing these point systems would change the way coaches in the league approach the final minutes of a close game. If adopting the 3-2-1 system, would a coach who’d normally draw the game out against an opponent from outside their conference to get the guaranteed point instead try to go for the full three points? I think it would be fun to see how this would play out, as finishing in regulation would be incentivized with this system.

What do you think? Are there any other point systems or modifications you’re curious about?