WEDNESDAY COMMENTARY – TRUST FACTOR
(Listen daily for the Rod Pedersen Commentary on Cat Country 98, Rock 98.5 FM & LTD Radio)
It’s an idea so radical that the NHL probably wouldn’t even go for it.
Years ago famed NHL General Manager and TV analyst Brian Burke surmised that the NHL should go to a new standings system which awarded three points for a regulation time win, two points for an OT win, and a point for an OT loss.
It’s a formula used in some international competitions and national tournaments and it really has no downside at all. It makes things real easy to figure out for dumb guys like me, and puts extra oomf into the end of games. (Think: no more “let’s just get it to overtime.”)
But Burkie’s strategy must be too out-of-the-box for the suits who run the National Hockey League because we remain with the two-point formula all those years later.
I got thinking about it Tuesday night with both the Calgary Flames and Winnipeg Jets earning loser points in home losses.
How mightily the three-point system would change the playoff landscape! And that’s probably why the NHL hasn’t gone that way; not wanting to throw history out the window, even though that’s never bothered baseball.
And changing how they add up wins and losses wouldn’t help the plight of the Flames right now anyway, no matter how you slice it up.
On Tuesday in the Saddledome they ran into a hot goalie while their own was ice cold. Again. Boston’s Linus Ullmark set a new career mark for saves – 54 – in the Bruins 4-3 OT win.
Dan Vladar got the hook at the other end, allowing two goals on five shots in the first period for the Flames.
The way this season has gone for Calgary is one of the most painful things I’ve ever seen! A Flames fan wrote into the RP Show yesterday saying it’s time to just take the “L” and look ahead to next year.
He might be the only one that thinks that.
Over in Winnipeg, Anze Kopitar scored four times as the Kings stunned the Jets 6-5.
At age 35, Anze’s one of the oldest players to ever accomplish the feat (Martin St. Louis is the oldest at 38), and it’s proof why teams are so reluctant to move on from their aging stars simply because they’re proven, and there’s a trust factor.
Kind of like the two-point system for awarding wins.
That’s today’s Rod Pedersen Commentary
(The Rod Pedersen Show airs daily at 12 pm ET on Game+ TV, YouTube Live, WQEE Radio and IHeartRadio)
How about just a win column, and a loss column.
Nah
Yeah… there’s no ties in hockey anymore, no need for 3 or 4 columns. It works in mlb,nba.
NHL wants a ton of teams in the playoff hunt late in the season that’s probably why the stay with 2 points for win system. I would love to see the 3 points system, like you said puts more onus on the end of games.
Logic would dictate that all games count the same. Right they do not. Some games have 3 points given, some have 2 points given. Make every game have the same number of points up for grabs.