EDIT: The Islanders make the playoffs with a -18 GD, Capitals clinch with a -37!!

[Connor McConnor]

Wasn't my point.

Metro is kinda weak this year, sure. My point was the people equating west being strong against east being weak, or how getting out of the playoffs in the east will be easy but so hard in the west which is a ridiculous thinking.

Especially with the lack of a playoff race in the west because of lack of competition in that conference cause by those 3 horrible teams. Chicago and San Jose in particular. High level terribleness.

A few bad teams doesn’t make a difference to how much stronger the playoff teams in the West are compared to the East. Also to act like the Caps, Pens, Blue Jackets, Habs, islanders or Sens are remotely close to being good is hilarious. They literally fed off the bad West teams to even be .500.

 

[Sam de Mtl]

A few bad teams doesn’t make a difference to how much stronger the playoff teams in the West are compared to the East. Also to act like the Caps, Pens, Blue Jackets, Habs, islanders or Sens are remotely close to being good is hilarious. They literally fed off the bad West teams to even be .500.

The teams you quoted are the same as Arizona, St Louis, Seattle and Calgary. None in the same stratosphere of suckage as those 3 western teams.

you seem to agree those 3 bad west teams are pathetic though.. so I am not sure what you are disagreeing with.

 

[Connor McConnor]

The teams you quoted are the same as Arizona, St Louis, Seattle and Calgary. None in the same stratosphere of suckage as those 3 western teams.

you seem to agree those 3 bad west teams are pathetic though.. so I am not sure what you are disagreeing with.

I’m disagreeing with the notion that you think the playoff teams in the East are comparable to the West. I’m a hell of a lot more worried about facing a team like Vegas or LA in round one than the freaking Caps, Pens or Islanders.

 

[ijuka]

Just goes to show how bad the two-point system is when it comes to determining what the best team is. With a three-point system, Penguins would be three points ahead of the Islanders, for example. And it's pretty clear that Penguins are the better team.

Even a two-point system with ties after regulation would have Penguins at 78 points and Islanders at 76 point.

Both of those systems are more predictive of wins than NHL's current system, which not only is completely unintuitive but it also the worst system at predicting who wins, aka the worst at ranking teams according to how good they are.

 

[syz]

People said the same thing about the east a couple years ago when teams like Montreal were tanking. 8 playoff teams with 100+ points and then the worst 8 non-playoff teams ever.

That said I don't put Columbus, Montreal, or Ottawa much higher this season. At some point you're just comparing the heights of acorns.

 

[Duder54]

Battle of the loser points coming down to the wire in the East…

 

[Riseonfire]

Battle of the loser points coming down to the wire in the East…

There is no point awarded for losing.


but keep pushing that misconception.

 

[miscs75]

-21 under Lambert
-2 under Roy

People wanted to put massive blame on the personnel over the systems themselves. Lane may have been a worse coach then Doug Weight was.

 

[Tawnos]

Absolutely nuts. With just a handful of games to go in the RS and a team with that sort of split is 3rd in the metro. Washington should be a bottom feeder with a -40 split too. What a fall from grace for the metro for starters, but also how is that even possible? This seems like something that could have occurred in 1986 when it was a 21 league team, but in a 32 team league teams that underwater in their goal differential being in the hunt this late in the season?

I think Pittsburgh or Detroit deserves a spot just by default lol. Just as another point of fact, but only 3 teams in the entire Western conference have worse goal differentials than these two teams, and all of them are absolute bottom feeders. Even languishing Calgary and the Arizona coyotes (who are 7 games below 500!!!!) have better goal differential splits too.

I mentioned this when talking about Pittsburgh’s bad record earlier in the year when they had a positive goal differential and this is the opposite. You asked how this is possible.

When you win, you win close. When you lose, you lose big.

Let’s say you win 35 games by an average of 1.5 goals. Let’s say you lose 27 games in regulation by an average of 2 goals. And then you lose 15 overtime games, obviously at an average of 1 goal. Your goal differential is -16.5. Of course, the shootout makes it more complicated, but you get the idea.

35-27-15 is the Islanders record and they’re -23. Because when they win, the game is closer than when they lose.

 

[PaulD]

Absolutely nuts. With just a handful of games to go in the RS and a team with that sort of split is 3rd in the metro. Washington should be a bottom feeder with a -40 split too. What a fall from grace for the metro for starters, but also how is that even possible? This seems like something that could have occurred in 1986 when it was a 21 league team, but in a 32 team league teams that underwater in their goal differential being in the hunt this late in the season?

I think Pittsburgh or Detroit deserves a spot just by default lol. Just as another point of fact, but only 3 teams in the entire Western conference have worse goal differentials than these two teams, and all of them are absolute bottom feeders. Even languishing Calgary and the Arizona coyotes (who are 7 games below 500!!!!) have better goal differential splits too.

Speaks to the number of lousey teams in the league ..... not to mention tanking ones.

 

[MikeyMike01]

People wanted to put massive blame on the personnel over the systems themselves. Lane may have been a worse coach then Doug Weight was.

Never forget

 

[Duder54]

There is no point awarded for losing.


but keep pushing that misconception.

I don’t really care what you call it - loser point, participation point, whatever. Having some games worth 3 points and some games worth 2 only serves to create the appearance of parity.

 

[wintersej]

The Metro sucks after two teams and the Rangers and Canes are going to get a team that doesn't belong in the first round.

The Atlantic has 4 of the top 11 teams in the league over the season and has 4 of the top 8 teams in the league since 1/1/24 when Tampa started to care.

The Atlantic teams have the hardest road right now and that would only be arguable if Vegas ends up playing through the Central.

 

[miscs75]

Never forget

The 1RW shows us all we need to know about his lineup decisions and the thought process behind them. It straight up screams, "you do know who my dad is."

 

[BB79]

The metro used to be a solid division. This year it's the worst in the league

 

[PajamaBoy]

Everyone in the league plays for ties because loser points.

 

[ijuka]

Everyone in the league plays for ties because loser points.

The reason is not "loser points."

The reason they play for ties is actually that regulation wins are worth the same as OTSO wins, so they're losing nothing by doing so.

If regulation wins were 3 points and OTSO wins 2 points, then they'd have a reason to play for a win in regulation as well.

 

[HolyHagelin]

While

Eastern Conference? More like Leastern Conference. amirite?


But really...Goal Differential can be misleading. Teams can flatter that by piling on meaningless EN goals cruising to wins, or just running up the score in games that are already won. Or on the other end, in "making it look closer than it is" by tacking on some garbage time "catchup" goals.

It's like "voting efficiency" where having a lot more goals for than against over the course of the year is generally a good sign...but it's more important to score the goals in the right games. If you can score enough goals/keep enough pucks out of your net in the right games, there's an "efficiency" in getting those wins. You don't get extra points for winning 5-1. And you lose the same amount of points getting blown out 7-0.

while this is true, technically, historically scoring differential is a strong predictor of future results across all sports. Good teams win a lot, and they blow out the bad teams.

Something like washington this season can at least be partially explained by Kuznetsov’s abysmal contributions early in the year, as the have been above water since losing him.

 

[Riseonfire]

I don’t really care what you call it - loser point, participation point, whatever. Having some games worth 3 points and some games worth 2 only serves to create the appearance of parity.

Agreed.
Bring back ties and let’s allow the records to be accurate.

 

[ijuka]

Agreed.
Bring back ties and let’s allow the records to be accurate.

This is the second-best option after the three-point system.

Both would be far better than the current, absolutely nonsensical system.

 

[Dirty Dog]

Way crazier is the islanders have 26 regulation wins. As do the red wings.

 

[kvladimir]

Its crazy that buffalo is going to miss badly despite having a positive GD. Ik it has been said for the past decade, but they are due for the chips to start falling in their favour.

It's the slimmest of chances, but there is still a scenario where BUF could make it. They have the RW tiebreaker vs NYI, DET, WSH and PHI, some tough matchups late in the season vs teams that might not have much to play for by then (DAL, FLA, TBL), and lots of games between these 6 teams fighting for the 2 spots that could cannibalize their points, while BUF wins out.

Not saying we should be expecting this, but it is possible, and what a story that would be!

 

[GreeningOil]

Who cares about goal difference?

I think it’s a generally a good indicator that a team is doing positive things most nights…

 

[Dirty Dog]

It’s just beyond absurd that the nhl standings are based on points…and some games distribute 3 points and some distribute 2 points.

And by the way, those three point games include some weird hockey mini game

 

[SI90]

My islanders have greatly benefited from the loser point this year. Yes the team has been better after Roy took over but we’re still not consistent enough to be a legit playoff threat. If we make the playoffs I don’t think we go passed the first round. In years prior the islanders were the team nobody wanted to play in the playoffs. Now, we’re likely the team other teams are hoping for.