NHL Announces 4th Tie breaker for Flyers/Panthers (If needed)

[North Cole]

https://www.tsn.ca/nhl-announces-4th-tiebreaker-procedure-for-flyers-panthers-1.1049312 (OP warning, video could be loud when you click the link)

It is a little far fetched, but as we saw with the Sedin's conspiracy thread on the mains, far fetched things do occur.

Scenario as per the article:
"Should the Flyers lose their final game of the regular season to the New York Rangers by two goals, and the Panthers win their final two games of the regular season in shootouts, a tiebreaking game will be needed."

This tiebreaker will be in the form of a full game, with playoff OT. This means continuous OT, with no 3v3 and no shootout. It is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, April 10, 2018 (if required). Home ice is drawn if the game is needed, as the teams will be tied.

Q) However unlikely it is, do you agree with a tie-breaking game so close to the playoffs or do you think they should find another stat to separate the teams? (Keep in mind the playoffs start the very next day - Wednesday, April 11, 2018). Also, do you think that there would be any gripes if the winning team was required to start their playoff series the next day, after possibly playing a 3 or 4 period OT game just to get in from the night before.

*I have never seen this happen before, perhaps it has and someone that enjoys doing research can undertake the task. Put this thread in here even though it is referring to a regular season game, Mods can move it if they feel it should be on the mains.*

Click to read more...

 

[Brock Radunske]

An MLB-style play-in game would be wildly entertaining.
And the potential back-to-back to start the playoffs is a downfall of not securing one of the 6 divisional spots.

 

[Benedict Kovalchuk]

Oh man, this would be so damn cool!

 

[Aspirine]

Is this for real?!

 

[North Cole]

Is this for real?!

I guess the article could be wrong, but we are well past April Fools. For now, I assume this is correct

An MLB-style play-in game would be wildly entertaining.
And the potential back-to-back to start the playoffs is a downfall of not securing one of the 6 divisional spots.

True, a sort of indirect punishment for barely squeaking in. It's funny because the Panthers "final" game of the season is a game that was postponed due to weather a long time ago. It has been a strange season for them.

 

[Michael Farkas]

You wouldn't just use...ya know...wins...?

 

[North Cole]

You wouldn't just use...ya know...wins...?

I think they view wins as redundant because they already use ROW - Regulation + Overtime wins. Followed by Points in season series, and goal diff. I guess they don't want to use wins twice so to speak, but it could work. It seems the Shootout gives a team points but it doesn't seem to count towards the ROW, perhaps I'm wrong but the article specifically mentions them winning in the shootouts in order to maintain the tie. I believe their ROW is currently tied, although, the Panthers would have +3 "wins" more than the Flyers.

They may also use ROW to specifically avoid counting shootout wins, which you would include if you just took the base win total for the last tie breaker. It's confusing

 

[MardyBum]

At this point the tie should be regulation wins since OT has become sort of a gimmick.

 

[Jetsfan79]

Goal differential between the teams in the season series could work as another tie breaker. You can even go a step further with even strength goal differential.

 

[Tom ServoMST3K]

https://www.tsn.ca/nhl-announces-4th-tiebreaker-procedure-for-flyers-panthers-1.1049312 (OP warning, video could be loud when you click the link)

It is a little far fetched, but as we saw with the Sedin's conspiracy thread on the mains, far fetched things do occur.

Scenario as per the article:
"Should the Flyers lose their final game of the regular season to the New York Rangers by two goals, and the Panthers win their final two games of the regular season in shootouts, a tiebreaking game will be needed."

This tiebreaker will be in the form of a full game, with playoff OT. This means continuous OT, with no 3v3 and no shootout. It is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, April 10, 2018 (if required). Home ice is drawn if the game is needed, as the teams will be tied.

Q) However unlikely it is, do you agree with a tie-breaking game so close to the playoffs or do you think they should find another stat to separate the teams? (Keep in mind the playoffs start the very next day - Wednesday, April 11, 2018). Also, do you think that there would be any gripes if the winning team was required to start their playoff series the next day, after possibly playing a 3 or 4 period OT game just to get in from the night before.

*I have never seen this happen before, perhaps it has and someone that enjoys doing research can undertake the task. Put this thread in here even though it is referring to a regular season game, Mods can move it if they feel it should be on the mains.*

The key to keeping these games special is to not force them like MLB does.

Fingers crossed we get one!

 

[severian]

In the unlikely event this game ends up happening, would the game be considered a playoff game for statistical purposes?

 

[seroes]

Don't think the NHL has a choice here. Assuming that crazy scenario comes to pass any tiebreaker they choose is going to be the league essentially picking one team over another. No matter what stat they choose their would be a backlash. That being said the idea of a playoff game does sound fun.

This off-season the league needs to either implement a play in system or come up with more tiebreaking procedures. I hope it's the play in game.

 

[Shockmaster]

Don't think the NHL has a choice here. Assuming that crazy scenario comes to pass any tiebreaker they choose is going to be the league essentially picking one team over another. No matter what stat they choose their would be a backlash. That being said the idea of a playoff game does sound fun.

This off-season the league needs to either implement a play in system or come up with more tiebreaking procedures. I hope it's the play in game.

I hope play-in games don’t become a regular occurrence. Enough teams make the playoffs.

 

[donghabs98]

Don't think the NHL has a choice here. Assuming that crazy scenario comes to pass any tiebreaker they choose is going to be the league essentially picking one team over another. No matter what stat they choose their would be a backlash. That being said the idea of a playoff game does sound fun.

This off-season the league needs to either implement a play in system or come up with more tiebreaking procedures. I hope it's the play in game.

Regarding a Play In game I hope the league implements it moving forward in two ways

1. Making it the second tiebreaker after ROW. Goal differential just doesn't seem like stat that should decide whether team A should make the playoffs over team B. What if a team had a series of game outings or one lopsided one like 8-1? A play in game has the same essence as using Head to head matchups as a tiebreaker and will give a more accurate depiction of what both teams are capable of as it would contain results from a game played by the actual rosters that would be in the playoffs.

2. Introducing a play in game for the final WC/playoff spot in each conference. This would give teams an added incentive of avoiding to just barely sneak in and could give a team who fell short a 50/50 chance to make it.

 

[Shockmaster]

Regarding a Play In game I hope the league implements it moving forward in two ways

1. Making it the second tiebreaker after ROW. Goal differential just doesn't seem like stat that should decide whether team A should make the playoffs over team B. What if a team had a series of game outings or one lopsided one like 8-1? A play in game has the same essence as using Head to head matchups as a tiebreaker and will give a more accurate depiction of what both teams are capable of as it would contain results from a game played by the actual rosters that would be in the playoffs.

2. Introducing a play in game for the final WC/playoff spot in each conference. This would give teams an added incentive of avoiding to just barely sneak in and could give a team who fell short a 50/50 chance to make it.

Disagree with that completely. If the 9th place team has fewer points than the 8th place team, they don't deserve another chance. They had 82 games to do better than the team one spot ahead of them. Let's not turn this into baseball. 16 out of 31 teams make the playoffs. I can get behind a play-in game if neither team is ahead in any tie-breakers, but I think having it as an annual occurrence is beyond silly.

 

[seroes]

Disagree with that completely. If the 9th place team has fewer points than the 8th place team, they don't deserve another chance. They had 82 games to do better than the team one spot ahead of them. Let's not turn this into baseball. 16 out of 31 teams make the playoffs. I can get behind a play-in game if neither team is ahead in any tie-breakers, but I think having it as an annual occurrence is beyond silly.

I agree with not having a play in game every year. I would like to have one in the event of a tie between 2 teams in terms of points. I would change the tiebreakers to

1) Points between the two teams in head to head series.

2) ROW

3) Play in game on nuetral ice. This could also be used to put a hockey game in a city with no team to try to get people a taste of hockey.

 

[Brock Radunske]

This should be the 3rd tie breaker, not 4th.

1. Reg Wins
2. Head-to-head
3. Play in game

 

[PensPlz]

We should all be rooting for this, as hockey fans.

 

[Flamesfan62]

We should all be rooting for this, as hockey fans.

Except for Flyers fans.

 

[Deadpool8812]

yea...about that potential tie-breaker game...

 

[Batrous]

Flyers are up 4 - 0 after 2 periods. It's looking like the tiebreaker will be moot at this point in the east at least.

 

[Batrous]

Congrats to the Flyers for a dominating performance. 5 - 0 the final

 

[Canada4Gold]

IMO a playoff game should be the very first and only tiebreaker if teams are tied on points. MLB does the WC playoff and I absolutely wouldn't do that in the NHL, but MLB also does a single game playoff for teams tied for the last playoff spot in W/L record which rarely happens. The goal of a hockey season is to win points. Nobody sits there late during overtime and thinks about getting the ROW. Or late in the game and worries about goal differential. If 2 teams are tied on points then they're seasons were equally successful. If that tie is for the last playoff spot then they should have a 1 game playoff instead of eliminating 1 of them on a tiebreaker.

It's not like this would happen very often either. There's only been ties for the final spot 3 times in 10 years. Detroit/Boston at 93 points for the last Atlantic spot in 2016, Minnesota/Columbus at 55 points for the 8 seed in 2013, Montreal/Florida at 93 points for the 8 seed in 2009. The league can handle a tiebreaker game once every 3 years, it's a more definitive and sensible way toe break ties than using stats teams don't actually consciously play for during the regular season, and it would be fun when they happen every once in a while.