What the NHL playoff race would look like with PWHL points system

It’s tradition around this time of year to discuss and debate various changes fans and media alike wouldn’t mind exploring to add a little flavour to the home stretch and playoffs.

Things like…

• A different playoff format. Should we better reward the best teams with a true 1-8 bracket in each conference? If we want to get really wild, how about the ability for the favourites to pick their first round opponent? My preference, though highly unlikely to happen for travel and cost, is a league-wide 1-16 bracket that does away with the conferences altogether.

• Expanded playoffs. Think tight regular season races should be resolved through a “play in” round of the playoffs? This is perhaps not the best season to make that case as we watch the East slowly crawl to the finish, but with MLB and NFL recently expanding their playoffs, and the NBA adding an in-season tournament to its mix, the NHL might eventually have to consider a change.

• Change the points system. Only eight of the NHL’s 32 teams are “below .500” on the league’s standings page, which is just silly. Playoff races are often not as close as they appear in this loser point era, as it’s just so difficult to make up ground on teams when you get two points for a win and they can still pick up one in a loss. Some races are artificial.

That last idea brings us to today’s piece, in which we’ll explore an alternate universe where the NHL has adopted the same system used in the PWHL. It’s one many would love to see come to the NHL, where three points are awarded for a regulation win, two for an overtime/shootout win, and still one for an extra time loss. We last did this exercise in January, which gave us a much different way to look at who the best teams were at that time.

And now, as you’ll see in the tables below, under the PWHL’s point system this year’s Eastern Conference wild card race would be extra steamy…

ATLANTIC DIVISION

• First off, we’re putting the Tampa Bay Lightning in this table instead of the wild card one because they would be far more relevant in this race. Under the current format, Tampa is six points back of Toronto with four games left to play, probably too far back to track them down. In the three-point win system, however, Tampa’s regulation wins would give them such an edge that they would be in a heated race with the Leafs. The two teams play against each other next Wednesday to close out their regular season — imagine if that still meant something!

• The Florida Panthers would leap over the Boston Bruins in this system, since the Bruins have been helped so much by extra time losses this season. This change wouldn’t be enough to put the Panthers back in the Presidents’ Trophy race, though — and actually, in this setup, the Atlantic Division leader would have fewer points than any other top seed.

METROPOLITAN DIVISION

• The Pittsburgh Penguins have been on a heater lately to claw back into the playoff race, and the advantage they have on those around them is that they hold the first tiebreaker (regulation wins) by a notable margin with just four games left. And, as you can see, in the three-point system those regulation wins would place the Penguins in control of the race, third in the Metropolitan Division.

• The Rangers and Hurricanes both have three games remaining and since they have the same number of regulation wins, the race for top spot in the division between them is virtually unchanged.

EASTERN CONFERENCE SECOND WILD CARD

• Now look at this race for the wild card. As a reminder, since we put the Lightning in the Atlantic Division table above, there would only be one playoff spot available for these teams (and the Penguins one point ahead) to fight over.

• The Capitals and Islanders remain in control, but New York comes out in a weaker position in this format than they currently do (the Isles are third in the Metro as of Wednesday).

• The snail race to these final spots has been painful to see play out in the past couple weeks, but if you impose the three-point system over this year’s standings, holy moly does it ever get more interesting. Even the New Jersey Devils and Buffalo Sabres (mathematically eliminated as of Tuesday evening) would still very much be alive. The Devils especially would be in greater control of their destiny, with games still remaining against the Islanders and Flyers.

CENTRAL DIVISION

• Even under a three-point system, there would be no wild card race to speak of in the West, so we’re keeping our look here at the divisions. In this set up, the St. Louis Blues would be the closest non-playoff team to a wild card spot, and they’d still be eight points behind.

• In the current system, Dallas’ recent 9-1-0 run has created enough separation that top spot in the Central is all but decided. But, if you flip that to a three-point system, both Colorado and Winnipeg would still very much be within reach. Heck, the Jets still play both the Avalanche and Stars in their final four games and could take over with a couple regulation wins.

• The Predators would be a distant fourth here, but they’d be seven points up on Vegas with two more games played, leaving them more in control of the first wild card spot than they really are (three points up on Vegas with two more games played). So, it’d be more likely in the three-point system that the Predators would match up against the lesser of the two division winners in Round 1.

• Connor McDavid’s injury has left many in Edmonton discussing how important the chase for the division title is over a busy final six-game schedule. Under the three-point system, however, that discussion would mostly be about the individual accomplishments that still could be achieved, because the Canucks would have more separation here.

• The Los Angeles-Vegas battle at the bottom of the division would be just as juicy here, where the Golden Knights are four points back with one game in hand. Vegas loses a slight advantage in this system (their points percentage would be just under Los Angeles’), but both will be mostly whaling on weaker opponents to finish.

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