GDT: Game 65: Coyotes @ Oilers - 7PM - FSAZ+

[The Feckless Puck]

There is a resolution. You get a point. I don't know why that is any less satisfying than losing in the gimicky shootout and getting a loser point.

Because in person it's not about points. It's about who wins and who loses. If neither team wins, then you've spent a whole lot of money for basically nothing. The shootout sucks, but at least it decides something.

 

[_Del_]

"Aww, damn. We tied. At least we got a point and didn't lose to the Oilers"
"Aww, damn. We lost in the shootout and got a loser point. At least we didn't lose in OT to the Oilers"

Neither is satisfying. I've seen lots of games in person under both formats.

 

[Name Nameless]

Credit to you for at least offering a solution

I am not sure if you are talking about the actual standings or the draft order. If you are talking about draft order it is a little complicated, and simpler is usually better. If you are talking about the standings then it is a full stop no because you are saying a win in October is worth a different amount than April. I am not sure if you were saying that however.

One idea I always liked is counting the points that a team gets once it is mathematically eliminated, which is another complicated concept. Basically at the end of the season you would look at what point each team was mathematically eliminated from the playoffs and all points they accrued at that point would count towards their total and the team with the most points would pick the highest. Teams that were right on the bubble might have been eliminated with 1 or 2 games left in the season would not get enough to jump to the top of the list, but teams that sucked all year long would actually have to try to compete to the bitter end to get points towards that draft pick. It would reduce the trade deadline to an even more boring spectacle than it has already become because there would be less rentals because even the poor teams would want to be competitive to get a better draft pick. I am not sure if rentals actually provide any benefit to the league as it is, they rarely factor into anything significant.

All that said, the simplest solution is usually the best one. If you are explaining, you are losing the argument.

This points after eliminated will totally favour tanking teams. Teams who lose intentionally. They will rule this system. Horrible, and the opposite of what we want.

I see nobody likes my suggestion of just using the first half of the season to determine draft order for the teams who doesn't make the playoffs. Even if that would have given the Yotes Dahlin this year, and there would have been no reward in starting to lose when you decide you don't make the playoffs.

If there are suggestions you want, I can give you another: make one of the wild-cards in each conference a true wild-card. Give it to the team who gets the most points in the second half of the season only, among those who doesn't make it with the top three or first wildcard. Then a team with an abyssmal start of a season can at least compete with the other 8 (or 7) teams with an abyssmal start. And no-one can say they are elimininated by christmas.

 

[BOGO]

This points after eliminated will totally favour tanking teams. Teams who lose intentionally. They will rule this system. Horrible, and the opposite of what we want.

I see nobody likes my suggestion of just using the first half of the season to determine draft order for the teams who doesn't make the playoffs. Even if that would have given the Yotes Dahlin this year, and there would have been no reward in starting to lose when you decide you don't make the playoffs.

If there are suggestions you want, I can give you another: make one of the wild-cards in each conference a true wild-card. Give it to the team who gets the most points in the second half of the season only, among those who doesn't make it with the top three or first wildcard. Then a team with an abyssmal start of a season can at least compete with the other 8 (or 7) teams with an abyssmal start. And no-one can say they are elimininated by christmas.

The wildcard system was put in place to balance out the unbalanced divisions in a division playoff. Basing a playoff berth on only part of the season does nothing to remedy that. You will not see systems that complex used to establish a playoff spot because it is not something that fits into the standings nicely. Imagine the IT teams trying to figure out the system to demonstrate that concept? It goes back to "if you are explaining, you are losing".

Back to the tanking teams...if it is based on the number of points you gain while eliminated from the playoffs, it only favors the losing teams because they have a large sample size of games to get those points. However, they still have to get those points, which true tank teams are not designed to do. Typically a tanking team has a very low shot of winning that many games at any point in the season.

My alternative idea, which again falls into the overly complex set of ideas would be to do a point system for draft order. For each of the following criteria over the past 3 years you get 1 point: Winning the Cup, Making the Playoffs, Picking 1st overall. Teams that were at the bottom the past 3 years will then get to take turns picking 1st overall and you could not see any team pick 1st overall more than once every three years. One bad season wouldn't throw you to the high draft picks either like what has happened in the past with Tampa and this year with the Hawks and Rangers. Teams like that would have 2 points at a minimum from recent playoff berths and would likely pick in the middle of the round rather than lotto territory even if they finished bottom 5 in a single season. It would have prevented the Oilers from stockpiling Hall, RNH and Yakupov and the Pens from getting both Crosby and Fleury. Colorado would have never gotten McKinnon. That is only talking about 1st overalls and you have quite a bit of changes, and it would be impacting probably the top 5 in many of those drafts. It would not eliminate tanking, but it would decrease the benefits of tanking.