Let’s face it, nobody likes losers.
That is, of course, unless you’re the NHL, which seems to have no problem with them whatsoever and, in fact, would like to give them a helping hand whenever possible.
What other explanation can there be for giving teams the absurd and mathematically maddening overtime-loss point? To demonstrate my point, here are the current NHL standings…
Now, here are how the standings would look without the loser point…
To save you the hassle, here’s what would change:
In the East (using the 1-2-3 divisional seedings):
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In the West:
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So what does this tell me? That the loser point is useless. No team would move up or down more than two spots, other than the Leafs, who drop four. And no team would gain or lose more than four points in the standings, other than the Leafs (minus-6) and Columbus (minus-5).
A win is a win and a loss is a loss and I don’t care whether that win or loss comes in regulation, OT or the shootout.
And never mind the philosophical debate; behold the simplicity of the W-L system. No more having to calculate a team’s percentage of points won in order to figure out winning percentage. If you’re 6-8, you’re winning percentage is .427, plain and simple.
So simple, in fact, it’s scary.
But the NHL needn’t be scared, because this change is addition by subtraction. The numbers don’t lie.