The NHL Points System

The Points system is flawed. And really, that is why I can’t seem to really understand hockey. I look at the sports page in the morning at see wins – loses and other stuff throughout the years… and I just scratch my head and go “WHAT?!” Football does have ties… and granted, in this day and age, it is almost impossible to have a tie in football with the way scoring is in the sport. Basketball and baseball simply do not allow it. And that is the way I think hockey should go. Don’t allow a tie. Play till someone wins. Sudden death, period, end of story. Would that radical? Maybe, but I think that is really what the sport needs… The Stars were seeded number two and got knocked out in the first round. And if that wasn’t enough, Detroit was seeded number one and was knocked out, in what, the FIRST round. Nashville, who was seeded number four, was knocked out in the first round, but it isn’t uncommon for a fourth rounder to be unseated in the first round. But both first AND second seed to be knocked out in the first round by the seventh and eighth seed… I can’t say that I have EVER heard of such a thing. And it simply goes back to the NHL’s points system. It is flawed. If you go by wins and wins only… with their being no ties and garbage like extra “points” given to losers who choke in overtime… they lost… get over it. Who has ever heard of such garbage in my life? I mean… did Hitler get extra points for keeping the Jews alive a few more days? Really!!! Come on… they lost, whether it’s in overtime or regulation! Has anyone else questioned this? And the same goes the “Shoot-out” loss. Guess what, the same word is still there: “LOSS.” Seriously, I’m having too much fun writing this. But if hockey were to simply go with a win-loss type system and leave it simply as that, that would stop all the garbage of the “point’s problems”. There really shouldn’t be any more seeding issues. The first place team would be a real first place team. First and second place being ousted in the first round would be a thing of the past. But the answer is in “Sudden Death.” As in all sports, a team plays things out as a team. It is extra innings in baseball and it is overtime in basketball. Let someone put up a goal in hockey and solve the points issue once for all.