With recent revisions to its tie-breaker system, discounting the value of a shootout win in determining regular season standings, it's time for a refresher course in NHL tiebreaker rules.
First off, the top three spots in each conference are reserved for its division winners with the remaining five playoff berths going to the next highest ranked teams. And yes, it is possible for a division winner to have fewer points than any of the five wildcard teams and still hold third place in the conference for playoff purposes. Carolina did it in 1999.
Total regular season points rules the day in ordering the division winners among the top three spots as well as the remaining non-division winners below. When two teams collect the same number of points, the team with more regulation and overtime wins (statistically abbreviated as ROW) jumps ahead in the standings. Shootout wins are no longer counted for tiebreaker purposes.
If teams share the same number of points and wins (excluding shootout wins), then the one with more points in their head-to-head season series prevails. If an odd number of games occurred between the teams, points collected in the first game in the city hosting an extra match will be discounted in the math.
In the unlikely circumstance that the teams remained tied after calculating points, wins (excluding shootout wins), and the season series, the team with the greatest positive difference between goals scored and goals allowed gets the nod.
Points, wins (excluding shootout wins), season series, GF minus GA.
Now you know.
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
NHL Tiebreaker Rules and Conference Seeding
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Wait, the Pens seem to have the same amount of points as the Flyers but with two more wins. Why do the Flyers get the #1 seed?
The Flyers had more regulation and overtime wins (44) than the Penguins (39) and that's what counts in the tiebreaker. Shootout wins are deducted from total wins for tiebreaker purposes.
http://espn.go.com/nhl/standings
Post a Comment