Overtime points are ruining the NHL

Going into Saturday’s NHL games, the standings were what they were thanks in large part to the overtime and shootout loss points given to teams, which are basically the equivalent of the “participant” medal you got as a kid to not make you run home crying after getting last place in the school race. These points are ridiculous. A team wins a game and gets two points, but when a team loses after regulation play, they get a pity-point and make it difficult for those actually winning the games to rise in the standings. The Tampa Bay Lightning, with 31 overall points, have nine overtime/shootout points. Almost a third of their points have come in games in which they were the losing team. But what happens if you remove these “thanks for showing up” points from the equation?

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