Cap'n Flavour
Registered User
I know playoff matchups are set but I had a look at the NHL's third tiebreaker rule after ROW and it seems to be fairly nonsensical:
"The greater number of points earned in games between the tied clubs. If two clubs are tied, and have not played an equal number of home games against each other, points earned in the first game played in the city that had the extra game shall not be included. If more than two clubs are tied, the higher percentage of available points earned in games among those clubs, and not including any "odd" games, shall be used to determine the standing."
At first I read this as 'if the two clubs are tied in points earned head-to-head', otherwise the qualifier is redundant in a tiebreaker rule. Apparently you are meant to read this as dropping the first home game of any season series with an odd number of games. Okay, so imagine this scenario:
Team A wins in regulation on the road (team B home).
Team B wins in regulation on the road (team A home).
Team A wins in overtime on the road (team B home).
If you just go with head-to-head points, Team A gets in with 4 points versus 3.
If you follow what seems to be the accepted interpretation of NHL rules, team B had two home games - both losses - so to mitigate home ice advantage, you drop the first game, and team B gets in with 3 points vs 2 thanks to the ovetime loser point. You get the same result if you switch the arenas for the last two games.
Say what? How does that make any sense? Why do teams get to drop home losses? Am I misunderstanding something?
"The greater number of points earned in games between the tied clubs. If two clubs are tied, and have not played an equal number of home games against each other, points earned in the first game played in the city that had the extra game shall not be included. If more than two clubs are tied, the higher percentage of available points earned in games among those clubs, and not including any "odd" games, shall be used to determine the standing."
At first I read this as 'if the two clubs are tied in points earned head-to-head', otherwise the qualifier is redundant in a tiebreaker rule. Apparently you are meant to read this as dropping the first home game of any season series with an odd number of games. Okay, so imagine this scenario:
Team A wins in regulation on the road (team B home).
Team B wins in regulation on the road (team A home).
Team A wins in overtime on the road (team B home).
If you just go with head-to-head points, Team A gets in with 4 points versus 3.
If you follow what seems to be the accepted interpretation of NHL rules, team B had two home games - both losses - so to mitigate home ice advantage, you drop the first game, and team B gets in with 3 points vs 2 thanks to the ovetime loser point. You get the same result if you switch the arenas for the last two games.
Say what? How does that make any sense? Why do teams get to drop home losses? Am I misunderstanding something?