Baseball Standings With Ties
Why does the NHL award points for losing? Can the standings just have win and losses like other team sports?
In other sports such as basketball and baseball, standings are solely determined by wins and losses. A team with more wins and a higher winning percentage will finish higher in the standings than one with less wins. However in hockey, a team with less wins can get a higher playoff seed by just waiting until overtime to lose. Why does the NHL award points for losing in overtime? It’s good there are no more ties, but a loss is a loss. Losing in OT or by five goals should not make a difference. Also what is the problem that prevents the NHL to switch to a regular win/loss standings system like the NBA? There are not points for losing in overtime in football or basketball or 1/2 a win for extra innings in baseball.
I’m sick of people calling it the “loser’s point.” Both teams are rewarded for playing to a tie in regulation. An additional point is awarded to the winner. I like the way it is now. It actually creates parity in the standings and even the worst teams are not out of the playoff running until late in the season.
If you ask me, there is a huge difference between losing in OT and losing by five goals in regulation. And about having more wins: if two teams have the same number of points, the first tiebreaker is having more wins. So the number of wins a team has does matter.
Since When Do We Have a Tie?